204 
Catherine temporized. The flower of 
her army was employed ina diitant war- 
fare, againft the, Muffulmen on the :bor- 
eers of “the Danube and the Dnecifter.. She 
therefore had recourfe to artifice, and fet 
up a counter-contederation, at the: head 
of which fhe placed a king of her own 
creation.” Her generals, Gallitzin and 
Romanzof, had, however, no fooner ac- 
guired a decifive ft fuperiority over the 
Turks, than fhe prepated ior offenfive 
operations, and carried on 2 contelt 
acaintt the Poles, im the name of Poland, 
with a ferecity that Cecio difgraced 
the moft favage nation.. The nobles, of 
the patriotic panty when -taken, were 
generally maflacredy a 
wvere relerved- for a ‘more dreadful fate ; 
for, of {ome.the tongues were cut out, 
and. of others, the members were’ muti- 
fated ;.and, in this fituation, they, were 
expoled to the unrelenting fcorn of their 
foes, and the unavailing compaffion of 
their countrymen*.- ‘The houle of Aul- 
tria alfo, was induced by the allyrements 
ef freth acquilitions, to deciare againft 
them; and even France, hich had hither- 
to given affiftance underhand, at length 
prifadeos: hoe aie Thus left to their 
own {canty refources, it atfords but little 
room fer wonder, that a nobility, swiich 
thought itfelf, “degraded by carrying arms 
in any other. manner than en ee 
and an enflaved peafantry, reluctantly 
ferving on toot, in a quarrel in which 
they, did not deem themfelyes interefted ; 
thould prove an ‘unequal match for a pow 
erful domettic party, headed by their own 
kine, and a numerous for ‘eign army, fup - 
ported by all the clergy of a great empire. 
We pene ther to be sonal: how 
a handtul of brave not oles, could have 
been able to fupport fuch an unequal 
contett, during the -years 1769, 3770, 
aad,177¥4 ¢this, however, they actually 
effected, and, had they been but properly 
feconded, by any foreign power, would 
aturedly have peeves ‘triumphant. 
¥@ was, the king was obliged tofhut him- 
self up.in War [ayys and was.indéebted for 
is perfonial iceurity> to 2 body OL Jo- 
reign mercenaries: even then, indeed, he 
a Ss 
LS 

w25 not ene ly fare from the enter prife 
ef the confederates; for on the 3d of 
eS eptember, 1771, he was feized in the 
77%, 
ftreets of| his.capital, by a reiolute band 

ene was 
booty ries y me R 
ds; ke: t evedit-to a 
iramenfe > > anc, 
late pu bitcation’ ef forne celebxi rity, the erm- 
prefs; Berléif received, t etl af amous library of 
“Frinte Radzivil, as her fhare of th pe cil! 
few palatines ; 
~ 
been. carried to thé camp, of Pulawhk F 
Account of the late K ing of Poland. 
of horfemen ; and had it not Beet 
treachery of Kofzinfki, he Heit ai 

and given an unwilling, but formidable 
fanction to the proceedings of, ‘the conte 
derates, 3 
The interview of fovereigns * ae 
too often fatal to the interefts of th e 
man race. During the conference “at 
Neifs, in Silefia, in 1769,- between ‘Jo- 
feph II, and the king of Pruffia, the lat- 
ter firft broached the idea of the difmem- 
berment of Poland ; and fent his brother, 
Prince Henry, to Peteribut gh, to found 
the difpcfition of Catherine, on that fub~ 
jet. Ina fecond interview, at Neuftade * 
in Auftria, the project of {poliation wa 
fettled ; and in 1772, this grofs violation 
ot the law cf nations was. perpetrated, 
and the Diet forced to announce its’ pre- 
tended affent, by means of a folemn act 
of renynciation.. Thus Poland was de- 
prived of large and fertile territories, be- 
reaved of five millions of inhabitants, 
and forced to relinquifh half her annual 
income, by the arts and arms of Ruffia, 
Aufiria, and Pruffia. It is not a little 
memorable, and it is worthy of the at- 
tention of thofe who mark the revolutions 
of empires, that* one of thoie eltates 
was formerly held in vaffalage by the 
Poles; another had {een its capital and 
throne poffeffed by them ; and a third hag 
been indebted to a king of thatt+ nation, 
for the prefervation of its metropolis, 
and almoft: for its exiftence as an” inde- 
pendent kingdom. 
' The bad faith of thefe imperial and 
royal {poiler s, is fo much the more no-. 
torious, when it is recollected, that in 
1764, the emprefs of Ruffta had tranf- 
mitted to the court of Warfaw, a re- 
nunciation of all claims on Poland, figned 
with her own hand, «and fealed with tle 
feal of the empire; that in the yery fame 
year, the king of Pruffia alto folemnly 
rélinquifked all claims and pretenfions, 
and that the empreis-queen 1m 1771, not 
only ablolutely difclaimed any right to 
any of the dominions of the republic, 
but even aifected to.conficer her felt as the 
» Bui tani of the integrity of its territe- 
ries. The partionary policy, of ‘the 
cont ee defpots,’” as.itis termed By 
an E agi th bifiop}, may appear to fuper- - 
ficial oblervers, to be attended only s Ah 

* Poland could never be prevailed os toace 
knowledge Pruffiaas:a kingdom at 17.04%" 
ti Joba Sobiefki. m 
{ Dr. Watson, $5 Cheutical Effa a » vol, 
iy. Pret. page 7. 
local 
* 
