reign minifters, that the latter, more than once, quitted the affembly in a rage; and the Pruffian enApril 23d. voy made a declaration, that if the affair of the Permanent Council was not finally determined by a very near day, which he then specified, his mafter would confider the delay or refufal as a declaration of war. This threat, however, produced no effect for the present, and the debates were as violent, and the refults as fruitless, as before.

In the course of these difcuffions, fome of the delegates, after lamenting in the most pathetic terms the deplorable fituation of their country, difplayed, with great eloquence and ftrength of reafoning, the fatal tendency of this establishment, in any of its propofed forms; and fhewed, that the evils, which were its natural and inevitable confequences, muft be as ruinous in the event as those with which they were immediately threatened in cafe of non-compliance. To evade, however, that power which they could not refift, other defigns were fketched out, and other schemes of government propofed, fome of which it was hoped, without being fo inimical to the ftate, might give fatisfaction to the three courts, by answering in a certain degree their general purposes. Among thefe, the most feasible seems to have been the propofal of a Permanent Diet, in the place of the Permanent Council. This diet was to be compofed of members elected every two years by the different palatinates; was to be fuppofed always exifting, except during the times of election; and was to regulate its fittings from time to time by adjournment, as the nature of pubVOL. XVII.

lic affairs fhould render it expedient or neceffary. This accommodation fcheme was totally rejected by the minifters of the partitioning powers, and the fame menaces were thrown out as before.

In the mean time, the continual encroachments which, in contempt of the late treaties, were made by the Auftrians and Pruffians upon the remainder of the Polish territories, not only increafed the ill blood between the delegates and the minifters of thofe powers, but rendered the former defperate as to every hope, that any treaty or accommodation could procure quiet or fafety to their country.

Thefe powers, indeed, wrested the fenfe of the treaties to every purpose, which cupidity, power and injuftice, could fuggeft. They not only claimed the whole of all thofe rivers which had been affigned as boundaries, together with their oppofite banks, but they also infifted, that ftrait lines fhould be drawn from the heads of those rivers to their determination as boundaries, and that all the country, included in their curves and deviations from those strait lines, should be confidered as their property. In the fame manner they laid claim to all towns, places, and diftricts, which had at all been specified in the lines of divifion, and to these affigned fuch limits as they found convenient.

As the weaknefs which fubmits to one act of oppreffion is always fure to bring on numberlefs others, fo thefe encroachments, carried on under fome colour or claim of right, were fucceeded by the feizure of whole diftricts, without the appearance or even pretence of any. The [B]

Pruffian

with juftice, and his inconteftible rights, and that he wished for nothing more, than to have the limits fettled upon fuch a juft and folid footing, as would prevent all complaints. This powerful mediation prevented, for the prefent, any further hoftilities.

We foon afterwards find that the affair of the Permanent Council was refumed in the delegation, and that they alfo proceeded to the eftablishment of thofe principles on which the future fyftem of government was to be founded: particularly with respect to the powers which were to be allotted to the king, his particular revenues, thofe of the republic in general, the number of troops which were to be supported, and the authority which was to be vefted in the Great Generals of Poland and Lithuania. The joint and diftin&t interefts, privileges, and rights, of those two countries, which, under various reftrictions, form one commonwealth, together with the degrees of authority they were refpectively to poffels, and the proportions they were to bear in the common expence, rendered this bufinefs complex and difficult. The parts which had been rended from each of thofe countries increased the difficulty, as new calculations and degrees of proportion became neceffary in every inftance, and the uncertainty of what was ftill to remain to either feemed to render the whole an inexplicable chaos.

The decifive intervention of thofe powers, whofe breath prescribed the fate of Poland, and who were equally enabled to admit of its having any form of government, or none, was, however, fufficient to remove all difficulties; and we

accordingly find that the delegation, during the months of Auguft and September, had nearly gone through the great business before them. In the mean time the diet, which was to have met on the 6th of May, was prorogued from one period to another, and has not yet met, that every thing might be fettled by the delegates, and the approbation of the partitioning powers received as a final ratification, before the holding of that affembly.

The establishment, modes, and departments, of the Permanent Council, were firft de

cided upon and figned Aug. 8th.

by the delegation. This council is to be compofed of forty members, and is to include three eftates, the king, the fenate, and the equeftrian order. The members are to be chofen at the diets, and the majority to be decided by ballot; their power to continue only from one diet to another. The king is always to be chief of the council; the fenate comprehends the great officers, or miniftry, and the members chosen from that body; and the equeftrian order are to be as nearly equal as the odd number 39 will permit. The proportional numbers for Poland and Lithuania are alfo fpecified.

This council is to compofe four particular departments, of which the firft is to take cognizance of all thofe concerns which ufually came before the marfhals of the crown, or of Lithuania; the fecond is charged with whatever relates to the police, and all the inferior departments are to bring in their reports to it, the third comprehends the military, the whole immediate power of which is vefted in the [B] 2

grand

grand general, under the obligation of bringing in all his reports and accounts at ftated times to be examined; the fourth have the care of correfpondence with foreign powers.

It was propofed in the delegation, that the Diffidents thould be eligible to admiflion in the Permanent Council; but, though it might have been hoped that their common fufferings and calamities would have united all parties and perfuafions, prejudices were, notwithstanding, ftill fo ftrong, that this propofal was almoft univerfally rejected. When we recollect, that two of the great partitioning powers had no other colour or pretence for meddling in the affairs of Poland, but merely to protect the Diffidents, and reftore them to their rights as citizens; when we recollect their declarations and public documents, and that the armies they poured into the country, the long wars that enfued, and the deluges of blood that have been fhed, had no 'other avowed caufe or foundation; can we refrain from amazement, or reprefs our indignation, at feeing that thofe people were only ufed as a ftale for ambition and rapacity; and that now, when every thing has fucceeded to the with of thofe powers, and that their fiat is become an inevitable law to the unfortunate Poles, the cause of the Diffidents is laid afide and forgotten. That the Poles fhould have retained fome refentment towards them, as being in fome measure the occafion of the devaftation at firft, and then the -partition of their country among foreign powers, is not fo much to be wondered at.

The other principal matters,

which have been fettled by the delegation, are faid to be the following. That the republic grants the king, as an indemnity for the lofs of his revenues, an annual income of five millions of Polith florins, (amounting to near 300,000l.) in which fum is included the million of florins deftined for the fupport of his guards. That fhe also engages to pay his debts, amounting to feven millions of florins. That fhe bestows on him, in hereditary poffeflion, four ftarofties, (which are governments of caftles, with the districts belonging to them) to be tranfmitted to his family for ever; and befides orders a reimbursement of fuch money as the king had advanced for the use of the ftate. It was alfo agreed, that the fixed revenues of the republic thould be enhanced to 33 millions of Polish florins, and that the army fhould confift of 30,000 effective men.

We muft here obferve, that if we are not mifinformed as to the value of the Polish florin, which we estimate at 1s. 2d. this great revenue, amounting to near two millions fterling, muft have been rather beyond the ability of Poland even in its beft times. It is alto to be obferved, that the delegation have made a moft ample provision for the king by this arrangement, the articles of which are fo much in his favour, as to leave little room to doubt, that his interefts were particularly fupported by the partitioning powers. This circumflance may perhaps afford a clue to the facility with which the affair of the Permanent Council, and other matters, had of late been carried through that affembly. Indeed it is no wonder, in fo general a wreck,

a wreck, if even the most difinterefted struggled for the parts which they might obtain from the fury of the waves; and that individuals fhould endeavour to confole themfelves, by fome private gratification, for the share they endured in the public lofs and calamity.

The intereft which the King of Pruffia has taken, upon this occafion, in the diftreffes of the inhabitants of Poland, is too curious a circumftance to be overlooked. That monarch, by M. Benoit, his minifter at Warsaw, has put an abfolute negative upon the establishment of an army of 30,000 men, as a cruel and intolerable oppreffion, and a burden which it is not proper to lay upon the people in their present ftate. The more we reflect on the nature of his own government, the more we must adinire the compaffion and benevolence which operate in this inftance.

We muft, in juftice to the Emprefs of Ruffia, take notice, that fince the ceffation of the fword in Poland, her conduct with respect to that country has been infinitely more juft, moderate, and temperate, than that of the other powers. Instead of new and endless claims, and continually harraffing and pillaging the people, the has, with refpect to herself, been governed by the late treaties; and to others, been their mediatrix and advocate; and there is little room to doubt, that she has been the means of preventing greater violences than thofe which have already excited the furprise of mankind. It is as little to be doubted, that the prefent partition of Poland was far beyond the original intentions of that princess, and that he was led, by various means and infenfible degrees, into

thofe fatal meafures which have terminated in its ruin.

Some time after the conclufion of the peace with Turkey, the Emprefs of Ruffia remitted 250,000 rubles to the King of Poland, as a compenfation for that part of his domains which fell into her hands.

This was the firft compenfation that had been heard of in the affairs of Poland, and will probably be the last.

Nothing can be more fully defcriptive of the condition of the governed, in those countries which have been ceded to the partitioning powers, than the conduct of the Jews. These people, who for many ages have compofed a very great part of the inhabitants of Poland, are daily retiring in numerous bodies from thofe territories which are poffeffed by the Auftrians and Pruffians, and flying for refuge and protection to the provinces which belong to Ruffia. Yet the Ruffian government was never confidered, even comparatively, as a mild one.

Commiffaries were appointed by the delegation early in the year, to fettle the limits between the territories of the republic and those of the partitioning powers, in fo precife and accurate a manner, as would for the future prevent all ground, and even poflibility, of difpute upon that fubject. Though thefe commiffaries held frequent meetings with those who were appointed for the fame purpose by the courts of Vienna and Berlin, the claims of the latter were fo exorbitant, that they as continually broke up without effect; and the affair of the limits feems now as remote from any profpect of adjuftment, as it was on the first day of the conferences.