READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER LVII.

NORTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPE, 1787-1796

THE first partition of Poland and the Constitution of 1775, guaranteed by Russia, had placed it at the mercy of that Power, more especially by means of the Permanent Council, composed of Russian partisans, and directed by the Russian ambassador. King Stanislaus Poniatowski himself was the mere creature of the Empress Catharine II, and had disgusted the Poles by the subserviency which he displayed towards her and Potemkin. Poland, in short, was administered almost as if it already formed a Russian province. Rumours were afloat of a fresh partition, which should reduce it in reality to that condition, when the breaking out of the war between Russia and the Porte, in 1787, seemed to offer an opportunity for throwing off the Russian yoke. The patriot party, led by Ignatius and Stanislaus Potocki, Kollontay, Kosciuszko, Malachowski, and others, determined to embrace it.

Catharine II, desirous that the Poles should assist her in her war against the Turks, proposed an alliance for that purpose to Stanislaus Augustus and the Permanent Council. Such an alliance, however, was contrary to ancient treaties subsisting between Poland and the Porte; and King Stanislaus, however willing to assist his mistress, was unable to do so without appealing to the constitutional, or four years’ diet, which was to meet in October, 1788. A complete change had now been effected in the political aspect of Europe through the triple alliance between Great Britain, the United Provinces, and Prussia, with a view to oppose the designs of Russia and Austria; and the Polish patriots, reckoning on the aid of Prussia and her allies, resolved to make a stand for liberty. Great efforts were made by men of talent and energy to be elected as nuncios to an Assembly which, it was believed, would alter and fix the destinies of their country. Their first triumph was to convert the Diet, the day after it met, into a Confederation, thus obviating the liberum veto, and leaving matters to be decided by a majority of votes. A note presented to the Diet by Count Bucholtz, the Prussian Minister, October 12th, strongly protesting, in the name of his master, against the alliance proposed by Russia, inspired the patriots with unbounded confidence, especially as the Prussian Cabinet appeared resolved to support its policy by arms; and the Russian ambassador found himself compelled to withdraw his proposal of an alliance.

Thus encouraged, the Diet, in spite of the threats of Russia, abolished the Permanent Council, January 18th, 1789, increased the army, and instituted a Council of War, independent of the King. But further reforms were too long delayed. It is probable that if the Constitution of May 3rd, 1791, had been established a year or two earlier, before the union of Prussia and Russia, with regard to the affairs of France, had altered all Frederick William’s views as to Poland, she would not have lost the Prussian alliance, and that her liberties might have been saved. There was, however, another condition necessary to secure the continued friendship of Prussia. That Power had long coveted the possession of Danzig and Thorn. In April, 1789, the Marquis Lucchesini was sent to Warsaw to negotiate for the cession of those places, with instructions to denounce as an imposture the idea that Frederick William desired a fresh partition of Poland. Certain compensations were to be offered to the Poles, and especially an advantageous treaty of commerce with Prussia, England, and Holland. Several of the patriot party were of opinion that the cession should be made. It was advocated by the English Ministry, though not by the merchants of England; and probably it might have secured the Prussian alliance, and have deprived that country of any motive for a second partition of Poland. But it was opposed by a numerous party in the Diet, and especially by those who were in the interest of Russia. Prussia, in consequence, abandoned the project for the present, but she still kept her eyes fixed in that direction. Meanwhile, as a war with Austria appeared imminent, Frederick William, towards the end of 1789, expressed his desire of forming an intimate connection with the Poles; and urged them to fix, as soon as possible, their form of government. In January, 1790, the Prussian Minister signified that his Court approved of all the reforms hitherto adopted by the Diet; proposed a defensive alliance, coupled with a reduction of duties on Polish commodities; and though he concealed not how much the cession of Thorn and Danzig was desired, he did not insist upon that point, and all mention of it was omitted in the defensive treaty concluded at Warsaw, March 29th. In the treaty concluded between Prussia and the Ottoman Porte in the previous January, it had been agreed that Galicia, which had fallen to the share of Austria in the first partition of Poland in 1772, should be wrested from her; and the Cabinet of Berlin was inclined to restore this province, or, at all events, a part of it, containing the salt works of Wieliczka, to the Poles, as an equivalent for the cession of Danzig and Thorn. But the majority of the Diet were averse to cede those ports, especially Danzig, the key of the Vistula, and the subject was therefore dropped. The sixth article of the Treaty of Warsaw is the most important, as having direct reference to Russia. It purported that if any foreign Power whatever, in consequence of preceding acts and stipulations, should assume the right of meddling in the internal affairs of the Polish Republic, his Prussian Majesty would first employ his good offices to prevent any hostilities that might arise from such a pretension; and that if these should fail, and Poland should be attacked, he would consider himself bound to afford the assistance stipulated in the present treaty, by which it was agreed that Prussia should furnish 30,000 men.

Meanwhile the framing of the new Constitution was proceeding very slowly, and it was not promulgated till May 3rd, 1791. The principal articles of it were, that the Roman Catholic faith should be the religion of the State, though dissenters were allowed the exercise of their worship, and full participation in all civil rights; the liberum veto was abolished; and, what was most important of all, the Crown was declared hereditary. The discussion of this article had been attended with great difficulties. To many of the Poles, to abandon the right of election seemed to be to sacrifice their liberties, especially as every noble might aspire to the Throne. The succession was settled, upon the death of King Stanislaus, upon Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, and, in the event of his decease without male issue, on the husband whom he might select for his daughter, with the consent of the States. Should the reigning House become extinct, then the elective right was to revert to the nation. The Elector of Saxony, however, was far from being dazzled with the splendid but precarious offer of the Polish Crown. He replied evasively, and delayed a definitive answer till April, 1792; when he gave a conditional assent, dependent on the approval of the neighboring Courts, and on certain changes to be made in the Constitution. The Constitution of May 3rd, and especially the article respecting the hereditary succession of the Crown, was far from being popular. This article was carried in the Diet only by a small majority, while of sixty Dietines or provincial Diets, only ten adopted it. Yet the elective right had mainly contributed to nourish anarchy in Poland, and to afford the neighboring Powers a pretence for interfering in its affairs. The Russian party, by way of thwarting the designs of Prussia on Danzig and Thorn, had contrived to obtain the insertion of an article prohibiting, under any circumstance, the transfer of any portion of the territory or sovereign rights of Poland to a foreign Power. The Prussian Cabinet was much opposed to the new Polish Constitution. They dreaded that, as the Kingdom was to become hereditary, it might, by a marriage with the Elector’s daughter, fall into the hands of a Russian or Austrian Prince, or of a small German Prince entirely dependent on Austria or Russia. But Frederick William at that time dreaded a breach with Russia, and was therefore desirous of conciliating the Poles; and he consequently both directly, and through his Ambassador, Lucchesini, announced, both at Warsaw and Dresden, his satisfaction at the happy revolution which had been accomplished. These, however, as appeared from the result, were mere perfidious compliments, on which the Poles laid too much stress.

The Empress Catharine II, on the other hand, viewed the proceedings of the Poles with a displeasure which she did not attempt to conceal. Although the new Constitution substituted an hereditary for an elective monarchy, and maintained the nobility and their privileges, yet the patriot nobles, by their liberal measures, and especially by demanding the citizenship of Warsaw, seemed to adopt the doctrine of equality; and Catharine pretended to recognize in the enthusiasm which reigned in Poland, the germ of those principles which agitated France, and menaced every throne in Europe. The altered state of things at the commencement of 1792 enabled her to wreak her vengeance on the unhappy Poles. The Courts of Berlin and Vienna were now reconciled, and jointly occupied in the war against France, while the Peace of Jassy, between Russia and the Turks, to which the English and Dutch had acceded, enabled Catharine to dispose freely of her forces. Her first plan was to occupy Poland; but from this she was deterred by the good understanding between Austria and Prussia. It was necessary, therefore, to conciliate those Powers, as well as to offer them some allurement for the prosecution of the French war, which interested her much, though she took no part in it. Both the German Powers wanted compensation for their risks and expenses in the war against France; Prussia desired a Polish province, and the imagination of the Austrian Emperor Francis II was inflamed by Catharine’s suggestion of an exchange of Belgium for some Bavarian territory. It was not difficult for Catharine to get up a strong party in Poland itself, where she had already numerous adherents, and where many of the grandees were disgusted at being excluded by the new Constitution from all chance of the throne. Among these last the principal were Felix Potocki, Severin Rzewuski, and Branicki, the Crown General. These nobles were invited to St. Petersburg, and formed with the Russian Cabinet a conspiracy for the overthrow of the Polish Constitution. King Stanislaus, the slave of Catharine, lent himself to the same design. All the projected reforms were delayed; the public offices were filled with the open or secret adherents of Russia; Branicki was appointed Minister at War, and all preparations for defence were neglected.

The result of these plots was manifested by the Confederation of Targowitz, May, 1792, formed with the avowed object of restoring what may be called the Russian Constitution of 1775. About the same time Catharine published a sort of manifesto, in which she declared the new Constitution illegal and dangerous, and intimated to the Poles that they must return to their ancient laws, or she would constrain them by force. The manifesto of the Confederation had also been prepared at St. Petersburg, and Potocki, Branicki, and Rzewuski only returned into Poland with the Russian troops. The majority of the Poles, however, still continued to retain their confidence in King Stanislaus and in the King of Prussia. The Diet, after publishing a Declaration in answer to that of Russia, and declaring their intention to defend their rights, adjourned themselves, May 30th, for an indefinite period, and thus put themselves in the power of Stanislaus and his ministry. Stanislaus for a while kept up appearances, and he addressed a letter to Frederick William II calling on him for the aid stipulated by the Treaty of Warsaw (May 31st). The Prussian king, in his answer (June 8th), stated what was true enough as to his private sentiments, but not as to his public acts, that he had never approved of the new Constitution, though he had done nothing to hinder it; that, but for this Constitution, and the measures taken to uphold it, Russia would never have resorted to coercive measures; that, whatever his friendship for Stanislaus, the state of things had completely altered since the defensive alliance was made; that the present conjuncture, having arisen since the Constitution of May 3rd, could not be brought under the obligations of the Treaty of Warsaw; that consequently he was not bound to oppose the present attacks of Russia, so long as the patriotic party persisted in their views; but if this party would reconsider them, he would unite with Russia and Austria in endeavoring to conciliate matters.

It is true enough that the French declaration of war against Austria, and the alliance of Prussia with the latter Power, had made a great alteration in the state of things, though hardly enough to release Frederick William from his solemn obligations. It has been alleged in his defence that he was alarmed at the resemblance between some of the speeches made in the Diet and those of the French revolutionists; and that to carry on a war with Russia and France at the same time was an absolute impossibility. We have, however, before had occasion to remark, that the war with France was little more than a screen and pretence for Prussia’s selfish designs upon Poland. In fact, months before Catharine had avowed her designs, and when the war between Austria and France, though imminent, was not yet declared, the Cabinets of Berlin and St. Petersburg had already come to an understanding upon the affairs of Poland; and Catharine had offered Frederick William a share in the second partition of that country, provided that, in conjunction with Austria, he should consent to march against France.

Kosciuszko.

King Stanislaus issued a proclamation, July 4th, calling on the Poles to defend their independence, and asserting that he was resolved to share their fortunes. Yet, instead of proceeding to the camp, he remained at Warsaw, though the Russian army, 100,000 strong, had entered Poland in May. He had, indeed, already entered into a secret understanding with Russia; and had written a letter to the Empress proposing to her Prince Constantine as his successor, imploring her to take a compassionate view of his situation. He had also prevented the Polish army, of which his nephew Joseph Poniatowski was commander-in-chief, from undertaking anything important, had in fact forbidden his nephew to venture upon a battle. Yet the Poles had proved in several skirmishes that they had not degenerated from their ancient valour. In these affairs, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who had received his military education in France, and completed it under Grates and Washington in the American war of liberation, distinguished himself by his valour and conduct. His exploit at Dubienka, July 17th, where, with 4,000 Poles, he had maintained his post against the efforts of 18,000 Russians, showed what might have been accomplished by courage and resolution. Yet a few days after (July 23rd) Stanislaus acceded to the Confederation of Targowitz. Felix Potocki was proclaimed Marshal of the Confederation, August 2nd, which was now called the “Confederation of the Crown”; an armistice was concluded, the command of the Polish army was restored to the ancient generals, the troops assembled near Warsaw were dismissed, and the Russians occupied Praga, a suburb of that city. The confederates of Targowitz being now masters of the Government, appointed an executive Commission of six, who assumed the sovereign power, and left the King not a shadow of authority.

The Prussians were now to play their part. A treaty for the partition of Poland had been signed between the Cabinets of Berlin and St. Petersburg, January 4th, 1793, and soon after a Prussian army occupied Great Poland. On January 16th, Prussia published a Declaration stating that the grounds for this step were, the disturbances that had arisen in Poland in consequence of the new Constitution, established without consulting neighboring Powers; the secret agitations still kept up, to the danger of the public peace; and especially the propagation of French principles in Poland, which excited in the King of Prussia apprehensions for the safety of his own dominions. Under these circumstances, being about to undertake another campaign, he had come to an agreement with the Courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg that it would be impolitic to leave an enemy behind him; and it only remained for the well-disposed inhabitants to deserve his protection by their quiet behaviour. This was followed by another Declaration, directed against Danzig, February 24th, and charging the inhabitants with having displayed for a long series of years, an unfriendly feeling towards Prussia, harbouring the dangerous sect of Jacobins, supplying the enemy with provisions, etc. Nothing could be more unfounded than these charges against the Poles of entertaining French revolutionary principles. So far from there being any Jacobin clubs in Poland, her most distinguished orators denounced the French levellers, who in turn abused the Poles, and ridiculed their new Constitution. Prussia was in every sense of the word the aggressor, without the shadow of a legal pretext. The Council and citizens of Danzig offered to surrender, on condition that their ancient constitution should be preserved, and that the fortifications of the town should remain in possession of the municipality, and be garrisoned by their troops. These terms were refused, Danzig was blockaded by General Von Raumer, March 8th, the outworks were gradually taken, and on April 8th it opened its gates.

Frederick William had on the 25th of March, announced to the States and inhabitants of the Palatinates of Posen, Gnesen, Kalisch, Sirada, Lentschitz, Rawa, Plotzk, the town and convent of Czenstochowa, the districts Wielun, Cujavia, Dobrzyn, the towns of Danzig and Thorn, that they were henceforth to consider themselves Prussian subjects. They were invited to assemble as soon as possible in a Diet, in order to settle these matters in an amicable manner. But, without waiting for its decision, they were to regard Frederick William as their Sovereign, and to present themselves to do homage to him. A proclamation of the Russian general, of a similar tenor, appeared April 7th, announcing that he took possession for the Empress of the counties of Poloczk, Vilna, Novogrodek, Brzesc, the greater part of Volhynia, of what remained of Podolia, and of the Palatinates of Kiew and Bracklaw. The provinces now seized by Frederick William were put on the same footing with those previously acquired, and received the name of South Prussia. Homage was done to that Sovereign at Posen, May 3rd.

Diet of Grodno. The second partition of Poland, 1793.

The Diet of Grodno, which was to sanction the cessions to the two Powers, assembled June 17th, 1793. The Permanent Council had been previously re-established at the instance, or rather by the threats, of Sievers, the Russian ambassador. The Diet exhibited the greatest reluctance to enter into the treaties demanded by Russia and Prussia for the dismemberment of Poland; and they appealed against them, but of course without effect, to all the Courts with which the Republic was connected. Finding themselves at length compelled to submit, they endeavored to make a separate treaty with Russia, in the hope that Catharine would defend them against the claims of Frederick William; and some authors have asserted that the Russian Empress made them a promise to that effect, although the two Courts had declared that they would treat only jointly. However this may be, the Diet could at first be brought only to appoint a deputation to treat with Russia. The treaty with that Power, signed July 13th, and ratified by the Diet, August 17th, transferred to Russia the provinces already named, comprising a surface of 4,553 geographical square miles, and a population of more than three million souls.

The treaty of Grodno with Prussia was signed September 25th, 1793. The provinces before enumerated, provisionally seized by Frederick William II, were ceded to that Sovereign. They contained 1,061 square miles of territory, peopled by more than three and a half million souls.

The Confederation of Targowitz having fulfilled its purpose, Catharine caused it to be annulled, and the old Constitution was nominally restored, September 15th. The Prussian treaty was almost immediately followed by a treaty of alliance between the Polish Republic and the Empress Catharine, October 16th. This convention, under the names of an indissoluble union and defensive alliance, virtually rendered the Poles subject to Russia. The King and Republic of Poland engaged to leave the direction of military and political matters to the Empress and her successors; her troops were to have free entry into Poland; and the Republic was to conclude no treaties with foreign Powers, nor even to negotiate with them, except in concert with Russia.

Among the last acts of the Diet of Grodno were a revision of the Constitution, the restoration of the King to the prerogatives of which he had been deprived by the Confederation of Targowitz, and the readjustment of what remained of Poland into eleven Palatinates, eight in Poland and three in Lithuania. It separated November 24th, after annulling all the acts of the Confederation of Targowitz, and thus, among other things, reestablishing a military order for those who should distinguish themselves in a war against Russia! For suffering these decrees to pass, through inadvertence, Sievers was superseded in the Russian embassy by General Igelstrom, a man of still more violent character. Igelstrom compelled the King and Permanent Council to cancel the Decrees by what was called a Universal, January 10th, 1794.

After the disastrous campaign of 1792 several of the Polish Fresh patriots, as Kollentay, Ignatius Potocki, Kosciuszko, and others, had retired into Saxony. But they were still animated with the hope of rescuing their country from oppression; and it was not long before an arbitrary act of the Russian ambassador seemed to offer an opportunity for accomplishing their purpose. Igelstrom had directed the Permanent Council to reduce the Polish army to 15,000 men. This measure, besides wounding the national feelings, was unjust in a pecuniary point of view. Many officers had purchased their posts, and depended on them for subsistence; some were in advance for the pay of the soldiers, others had enlisted them at their own expense. This offence was given at a moment when the national feeling was already in a state of fermentation. Much excitement and turbulence had been displayed in the Dietines assembled in February, 1794, for the elections under the new Constitution. The symptoms were so alarming that Igelstrom deemed it necessary to form a Russian camp near Warsaw, to retain that city in obedience. The insurrection of 1794 was commenced by Madalinski, a general of brigade, stationed at Pultusk, about eight leagues from Warsaw. Madalinski, having been ordered to reform his corps according to the new regulations, refused to do so till they had received their pay, which was two months in arrears; and he marched towards Cracow, skirting the provinces recently annexed to Prussia. Kosciuszko, who was at Dresden, hearing of this movement, hastened to Cracow, where he was proclaimed generalissimo, March 24th, 1794. The Russian garrison of that place had marched against Madalinski. Kosciuszko, having assembled the citizens, proclaimed the Constitution of May 3rd, 1791, amidst the greatest enthusiasm. He also issued a proclamation, calling on the whole nation to assert their independence, and employed himself in organizing his little army, to which he added a number of peasants armed with scythes. With these tumultuary forces he attacked and defeated a body of 7,000 Russians at Raslawice, April 4th; an affair, indeed, of no great importance, but which encouraged the troops with hopes of further victories.

The King and Permanent Council, in a Universal published April 11th, declared the leaders of the insurrection rebels and traitors, ordered them to be brought to trial, exhorted the Poles to obedience, warned them by the example of France of the dangers of rebellion. To this, however, little heed was given. The forces of Kosciuszko increased daily, and Igelstrom, distrusting the garrison of Warsaw, first occupied the castle and other posts with Russian soldiers; subsequently, being compelled to weaken his troops there by detaching some of them against the insurgents, he resolved to disarm the Polish garrison. But this scheme got wind, and the insurrectionary leaders resolved to anticipate it. On the night of April 16th, the Polish garrison and the citizens of Warsaw flew to arms and massacred the Russians wherever they were found in small numbers. A fight ensued in the streets, the Russians retreating from one quarter to another, till at last, after a resistance of thirty-six hours, which cost the Russians more than 4,000 men, killed, wounded, or made prisoners, Igelstrom, with the remainder of his troops, succeeded in escaping from the town, and took refuge in the Prussian camp in the vicinity. The citizens of Warsaw now signed the new Confederation, and recognized Kosciuszko as their commander-in-chief; King Stanislaus was deprived of his authority, but treated with the respect due to his rank.

The news of this insurrection was the signal for a rising in General Lithuania. The citizens of Vilna flew to arms on the night of April 23rd, and massacred or made prisoners nearly all the Russian garrison. A similar scene took place at Grodno. A criminal tribunal erected at Vilna condemned to death the Bishop Kossakowski, a partisan of Russia. The insurrection now spread rapidly through all the Palatinates. The entire Polish army declared for Kosciuszko; the regiments which had entered the Russian service deserted en masse, and ranged themselves under his colours. An ordinance, published at the camp of Polanice, May 10th, 1794, established a National or Supreme Council of eight members for the government of the Republic. The King was entirely set aside, though suffered to retain his title. Kosciuszko himself had been invested with dictatorial power, which he employed only for the good of his country.

Colonel Manstein now persuaded Frederick William II to enter Poland with his army, neglecting the campaign on the Rhine; and, though Count Haugwitz and Marshal Mollendorf protested against so open a breach of the treaty recently concluded with England and Holland at the Hague, it was decided that, in the French war, Prussia should do only what was absolutely unavoidable. The Prussian troops invaded Poland in various quarters, and on June 3rd, the King himself entered the territory of Cracow with reinforcements, intending to form a junction with a Russian corps under General Denisoff. Kosciuszko, to prevent this, attacked Denisoff at Szczekociny, June 6th. He was not aware that the Prussians were so near at hand till they fell upon his left wing, and by their superior numbers compelled him to retreat with considerable loss. He now withdrew to Gora, a town about ten leagues from Warsaw, where he entrenched himself. In order to animate the Poles, the Supreme Council published a declaration of war against Prussia, June 12th, signed by Ignatius Potocki. On the 15th Cracow surrendered to a Prussian corps; an event which induced the Emperor Francis II to declare himself. A change had taken place in the counsels of the Court of Vienna, now directed by Thugut. Early in June, Francis resolved to abandon his Belgian provinces, and to seek compensation in Bavaria and Poland. Catharine had invited him to intervene in the affairs of Poland by way of counterpoise to Prussia, whose ambitious designs she was desirous of limiting. Having quitted his army, and returned to Vienna, he directed General D'Arnoncourt to announce by a proclamation, June 30th, that to avert the danger arising to the Province of Galicia from the disturbances in Poland, he had been ordered to enter that country with his forces. A corp d'armée of 17,000 Austrians accordingly marched on Brzesc and Dubnow.

Siege of Warsaw.

Kosciuszko had retired from Gora to Warsaw. That city was unfortified, and Kosciuszko covered it on its western side by an entrenched camp. He had been followed by Frederick William, who took up a position at Vola, about a league from Warsaw. Many assaults had been delivered, Kosciuszko’s entrenchments were falling gradually into the hands of the Prussians, and the capture of Warsaw appeared imminent, when Frederick William suddenly departed (September 6th). The reason for his retreat was the breaking out of an insurrection in the provinces recently annexed to Prussia. The Prussian yoke was much more intolerable to the Poles than the Russian. All civil employments in the subjugated provinces were filled by Germans; the inhabitants were subject to a civil and criminal code, published in German, and were forced to learn that tongue. The withdrawal of the Prussian troops for the siege of Warsaw affording an opportunity, an insurrection broke out in Siradia, August 23rd, and soon spread to the other provinces of Great Poland. The towns of Posen, Petrikau, and one or two others, having Prussian garrisons, were alone retained in obedience. Kosciuszko took advantage of the rebellion to dispatch Dembrowski with a considerable corps into West Prussia. Dembrowski seized the town of Bromberg and the magazines collected there, and compelled the inhabitants to take an oath of fealty to the Polish Republic; an exploit which occasioned such alarm at Berlin that Prince Hohenlohe with his corps was recalled from the Rhine.

But this success was only partial and temporary. A Russian army under Knoring and Souboff had assembled in Lithuania, and as it advanced, that of the Poles melted away. The Lithuanians under General Chlewinski were entirely defeated August 12th, Vilna was compelled to open its gates, and the whole province was speedily recovered by the Russians. Early in September, Suvorov, recalled from the Turkish frontiers, entered Volliynia with 20,000 men, and directed his march upon Warsaw. On the 18th he dislodged the Polish general Sierakowski, posted with 15,000 men at Krupczyce, near Brzesc, and defeated him next day on the banks of the Bug. The Poles lost 6,000 men and thirty guns on this bloody day. Suvorov having formed a junction with Prince Repnin, who was marching on Warsaw from Grodno, Kosciuszko hastened to oppose them. At Maciejowice he met the corps of General Fersen, who was waiting for Repnin and Suvorov, and immediately attacked him, October 10th. But the reinforcements which Kosciuszko expected did not arrive; the Russians, irritated by the carnage at Warsaw, fell upon the Poles, and made a terrible slaughter. As the fate of the day hung doubtful, Kosciuszko, with his principal officers and the elite of his cavalry, dashed into the thickest of the fight, when his horse having fallen with him, he was made prisoner. He had received some severe wounds, and was long insensible. On recovering his consciousness he is said to have uttered the words, Finis Poloniae! On this fatal day, 3,000 more prisoners, including many distinguished officers, and all the artillery and baggage, fell into the hands of the Russians; the field of battle was strewed with the bodies of 6,000 Poles.

The news of the disaster struck Warsaw with consternation. Nevertheless the revolutionary leaders resolved not to abandon the national cause. The command-in-chief was confided to Wawrzecki, and Prince Poniatowski was directed to march to the aid of Dembrowski and Madalinski, who were returning from their expedition into Prussia. Poniatowski, by attacking the Prussians at Sochaczen, October 22nd, occasioned a diversion which enabled the two generals to effect their retreat to Warsaw.

De Favrat, the commander of the Prussian army, crossed the Vistula at Viszgorod, and surrounded Warsaw on the western side, while the Russians, under Derfelden and Fersen, invested the suburb of Praga, on the right bank of the Vistula. They were joined towards the end of October by Suvorov. Praga, though defended by 100 guns, was assaulted and taken by the Russians, and being chiefly built of wood, was almost entirely destroyed by fire, November 4th. In Warsaw the magistrates were desirous of capitulating, but the troops would not hear of it. At length the National Council and General Wawrzecki replaced the sovereign power in the hands of Stanislaus; the latter retired with the troops and 122 guns, November 7th; and two days after, Suvorov, after repairing the bridge over the Vistula, which had been burnt, entered Warsaw. Such was the end of the Polish insurrection of 1794. The more distinguished patriots were proscribed, their estates were confiscated, and those who had been captured were thrown into dungeons at St. Petersburg, while some thousands of Poles were transported to Siberia.

Third partition of Poland

Russia, Austria, and Prussia now quietly divided their prey, and Poland was blotted out from the map of Europe. It was arranged by the Convention of St. Petersburg, January 3rd, 1795, that besides the Duchy of Courland, a former fief of Poland, Russia should have the Duchy of Semigallia, the district of Pilten, Samogitia, part of the Palatinates of Troki and Chelm, the remainder of those of Vilna, Novogrodek, Brzesc, and Volhynia. To Austria were assigned the town and greater part of the Palatinate of Cracow, the Palatinates of Sandomierz and Lublin, and part of those of Chelm, Podlachia, and Masovia. The lot of Prussia was the remains of the Palatinates of Rawa and Plotzk, part of Masovia, including Warsaw, which the Prussians had not been able to take, and portions of Podlachia, Troki, and Cracovia. Each of these three shares contained a population of about 1,000,000 souls, some a little more or less. This division was confirmed by a threefold treaty between the Powers, signed at St. Petersburg, October 24th, 1795. Disputes had, however, arisen between Austria and Prussia about the division of Cracovia, the situation of which renders it important as the key both of Galicia and Silesia. The Prussians were in possession of Cracow, and seemed disposed to retain it by force. The point was reserved for future negotiation under the arbitration of the Empress. It was only through her threat to retain Warsaw that the Prussians were brought to evacuate Cracovia. The Austrians entered that province in January, 1796, when the Russians retired from Warsaw, and a Prussian garrison was admitted. The demarcation of Cracovia was finally regulated under Russian mediation, October 21st, 1796.

In October, 1795, King Stanislaus, who had been sent into a kind of banishment at Grodno, was directed to lay down the crown of Poland, which he had worn since 1764. He signed the Act of Abdication, November 25th. A pension of 200,000 ducats was assigned to him. After the accession of Paul I he took up his residence at St. Petersburg, in which city he died February 12th, 1798. Pierre de Biron, last Duke of Courland, had abdicated in favour of Catharine at St. Petersburg, March 28th, 1795.

Thus was completed one of the most shameful passages in the history of Europe. Poland, however, or rather the great body of the people, could hardly suffer by a change of masters. Nine-tenths of the population consisted of wretched serfs, steeped in the lowest depths of poverty, ignorance, brutality, and wretchedness. What really fell, as a modern writer observes, was the inhuman rule of a few nobles. Catharine II did not long outlive these events. She was carried off by apoplexy, November 17th, 1796, in the sixty-seventh year of her age. The policy of her latter years was marked by her hatred of the French Revolution, modified by a paramount regard to her own interest. She was also involved at this moment in a war with Persia. Beholding England and the greater part of Europe engaged in a war with France, her restless ambition made her regret having abandoned her projects for the subjugation of Turkey. The anarchy, however, which reigned in Persia since the death of Thamas Kouli Khan, and which was fomented by Russian policy, just as that of Poland had been for its own interested purposes, inspired Catharine with the hope of extending her conquests in that direction. She dreamt of nothing less than conquering Persia, and reviving the magnificent but impracticable plan of Peter the Great for diverting the commerce of the East towards Russia, through the Persian Gulf, the Caspian, or the Black Sea. An expedition was undertaken early in 1796, under the conduct of Count Valerian Zouboff, one of Catharine’s favourites. Derband, the capital of Daghestan, was taken. But the army was weakened by disease; and Paul I, on his accession, recalled his troops from this hopeless enterprise.

Catharine was succeeded by her son, Paul I Petrowitsch. At first he reversed much of the policy of his mother, though he, like her, was a determined enemy of the French Revolution. He began his reign by a step which testified his disapprobation of the cruelties exercised in Poland. He restored to liberty more than 14,000 Poles exiled or imprisoned in consequence of the last insurrection. Kosciuszko, Potocki, and many others, were not only liberated, but their estates were also restored to them on their promising to live peaceably. Paul, accompanied by his son Alexander, visited Kosciuszko in his prison, and, being naturally tender-hearted, is said to have shed tears at the sight of his misery.

The Scandinavian kingdoms.

 Of the Scandinavian kingdoms, Denmark refused to participate in the great convulsion that was agitating Europe. Christian VII. remained the nominal Sovereign of that country down to his death in 1808, but imbecility of mind rendered him incompetent to govern. The affairs of Denmark were administered by the Prince Royal, Frederick, afterwards Frederick VI, with the assistance of an able Ministry, and especially Count Bernstoff. Under this beneficent government Denmark enjoyed a remarkable prosperity. The liberties of the people were extended, their grievances abolished, learning, science, and education promoted. The French Revolution found, on the other hand, no more zealous and active opponent than Gustavus III of Sweden. It was this feeling, of which they had in common, that united him with Catharine II. The chivalrous but imprudent spirit of Gustavus was flattered with the idea of leading the crusade of the Sovereigns against France. He entered into correspondence with Monsieur, the Comte d'Artois, the Marquis de Bouillé, and other chiefs of the emigration. In the spring of 1791 he repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle, under pretence of taking the waters, but in reality to consult with the French emigrants; and he was concerned in the preparations for Louis XVI’s unfortunate flight to Varennes. After the failure of that enterprise, he entertained the hazardous scheme of landing Swedish and Russian troops in the Seine, marching upon Paris, and suppressing the Revolution. Gustavus was supported in this anti-revolutionary ardour, which amounted almost to Quixotism, by Catharine II. She proposed to him, through General Pahlen, an intimate alliance, and Gustavus readily accepted a proposal which would enable him to be absent from his dominions without apprehension as to his powerful neighbor. Such seems to have been the chief object of the Treaty of Drottningholm, concluded October 19th, 1791.

A conspiracy for assassinating the King had long existed among some of the Swedish nobles. Plots had been organized for effecting this object at Aix-la-Chapelle, Stockholm, and other places, which had hitherto failed; but the dismissal of the States, and the rumoured unconstitutional projects of Gustavus, brought them to maturity. One of the chief promoters of the King’s assassination was General Pechlin, an old man of seventy-two. Several other nobles were implicated in the conspiracy, and especially Counts Ribbing and Horn, and Captain Ankarström. Impelled to some extent by personal feelings, Ankarström shot the King in the back at a masquerade given at the Opera House at Stockholm, March 16th, 1792. Gustavus survived till the 29th. He was forty-six years of age at the time of his death. The chief conspirators were captured; but Ankarström alone was executed; the rest were either banished from Sweden or confined in fortresses. Gustavus Gustavus III’s son, then in his fourteenth year, succeeded to the Crown of Sweden, with the title of Gustavus Adolphus IV. Till he should attain his majority, the regency was assumed by his uncle Charles, Duke of Sudermania, brother of the late King. The Swedish Court now adopted a neutral policy; a conduct which produced a misunderstanding with the Court of St. Petersburg. Another cause of dissension was the publication of a proposed marriage of the young King of Sweden with a German princess (October, 1795), in spite of Gustavus’s promise that he should be united to the Archduchess Alexandra. Catharine having declared that she should consider the proposed marriage of Gustavus Adolphus as a ground of rapture, it was not prosecuted. Towards the autumn of 1796 Gustavus IV, accompanied by his uncle, paid a visit to the Empress at St. Petersburg. But though the young King was much struck with the charms of the Grand Duchess Alexandra, he refused to sign the marriage contract, on the ground that it contained provisions contrary to the religion which he professed, and to the laws and customs of his country. Catharine was furious at this affront. Her death, however, prevented any ill consequences from ensuing, and on the accession of Paul a good understanding was renewed between the two Courts.

(The northern courts; containing original memoirs of the sovereigns of Sweden and Denmark, since 1766)

GERMANY

The same spirit which produced the Revolution in France penetrated into Germany and even into its Courts. It had animated and influenced Frederick the Great and the Emperor Joseph II. The vast intellectual movement observable throughout Europe in the last half of the eighteenth century had given birth almost to the first German literature that can be called original and vernacular. The German authors of this period, like the French literati themselves, discarded their former classical and French models, and sought in English literature a new source of inspiration. The works of most of their distinguished writers began to breathe a spirit of liberty. Salzmann, in his romance of Karl von Karlsberg, placed before the eyes of his numerous readers a striking and perhaps exaggerated picture of the political and social evils under which they laboured. The epic poet Klopstock gave vent to his aspirations for freedom in several Odes. The Dichterbund, or band of poets, established at Gottingen about the year 1770, of which Count Stolberg was one of the most distinguished members, looked up to Klopstock as their master. In many of Stolberg’s pieces love of liberty and hatred of tyrants are expressed with a boldness which must have grated strangely on the ears of some of the German Sovereigns. But in general these works were in too high a tone to have much influence on the people. Schiller’s early tragedies were calculated to have more effect, especially his Don Carlos; which, from the speeches of the Marquis de Posa, has been characterized as a dramatized discourse on the rights of man. Yet when the French Revolution broke out, it found no partisan in Schiller. He augured unfavourably of the Constituent Assembly, thought them incompetent to establish, or even to conceive, true liberty; foretold the catastrophe of a military despotism. Goethe, his contemporary, regarded the explosion in France as an unwelcome interruption of the tranquil pleasures of polite and cultivated society; Wieland, in his essays on the French Revolution, took the popular side. A more direct form of propagating liberal principals than by literature was by means of clubs and secret societies. The clubs of France were formidable political engines; but, then, their debates were public and their objects practical. Such associations would not have been suffered in Germany. The reformers of that country had therefore enlisted themselves in a secret society called the Order of Illuminati, founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, a professor of canon law at Ingolstadt, and modelled after the constitution of the Jesuits, whose pupil Weishaupt had been. In a few years this society numbered thousands of members, belonging chiefly to the higher classes. Its principles seem not to have threatened any very immediate or alarming danger. Nevertheless it was suppressed by Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria; Weishaupt was compelled to fly, and found a refuge at Gotha. In other German States the Illuminati appear to have been left unmolested.

Little desire was manifested in Germany to imitate the movement in France. It was only in the Rhenish provinces, where the people came into immediate contact with the French, and could be assisted by their armies, that any revolutionary spirit was manifested. An appeal was even ventured on for patriotic gifts in support of the war of the Empire against French principles, and brought in a few hundred thousand florins. The Austrian Freemasons, whom Joseph II had patronized, spontaneously suppressed their meetings, in order, as they told the Emperor, to relieve him of some of his cares in that season of disturbance. Nevertheless Thugut, the Austrian Minister, deemed some precaution necessary. Thugut had resided at Paris during the early days of the Revolution, and from an acquaintance with its scenes and personages, had imbibed a deep hatred of popular government, as well as the conviction that if the French Court and clergy had prevented, by means of the police, the philosophers and beaux esprits from propagating their principles, the outbreak would never have occurred. Hence he was led to forbid all social unions, and to subject the press to a rigid censorship. No allusions were permitted in the theatre to political or religious matters. It was forbidden to represent such plays as Otto von Wittelsbach, Hamlet, Macbeth, King John, Richard II, etc., as familiarizing the minds of the spectators with the murder or deposition of kings; King Lear, lest it should be thought that misfortune turned the heads of monarchs; still less plays directly provocative of revolutionary ideas, as Egmont, Fiesco, William Tell.

Haugwitz.

The affairs of Prussia at this period were conducted by Haugwitz, a large landed proprietor of Silesia. In a journey which he made into Italy, Haugwitz acquired the favour of Leopold, then Grand Duke of Tuscany, and after the accession of that Prince to the Imperial throne, and the change produced in Prussian policy by the Convention of Reichenbach, he was sent ambassador to Vienna. He subsequently entered the Cabinet of Berlin as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The fatal estrangement of Prussia from Austria, and from the affairs of the Empire, must be chiefly attributed to his policy. Another notable Prussian statesman of this period, though by birth a Hanoverian, was Baron Hardenberg.

Italy was destined to become before long the scene of Italy, events of the greatest moment. In general it may be observed, that although the French Revolution had of course its partisans in Italy, the great mass of the Italian people were not favourable to it. They entertained an ancient aversion to the French from their frequent attempts and well-known desire to establish their dominion in Italy.

Tanucci

When Charles of Bourbon ascended the throne of Spain in 1759, the Two Sicilies were assigned to his second son, Ferdinand IV, then nine years of age. The Prince of St. Nicandro, appointed as his governor, was an uneducated man, addicted to the sports of the field, and capable only of instilling into the youthful monarch a love of his own pursuits. Fortunately, however, the Marquis Tanucci, a man of liberal and enlightened principles, possessed great influence in the Neapolitan counsels, and obtained the ear of the King. The main aims of Tanucci were to set bounds to the pretensions of the Pope, and to increase the royal prerogative by reducing the power of the nobles. In no part of Italy were feudal privileges more strictly maintained, or more oppressive, than in the Neapolitan dominions, and especially in the two Calabrias. The barons, like the çi-devant nobles of France, enjoyed exclusive rights of hunting and fishing, of grinding corn and baking bread; they named the judges and the governors of cities; besides the customary feudal services, they claimed the first fruits of the vintage, the harvest, and of all the productions of agriculture and pasturage, as well as of custom, dues, etc. Thus at one and the same time the people were oppressed, the royal authority was almost annihilated, and the treasury deprived of its proper revenues. Tanucci moderated all these abuses, and civilized the manners of the country nobles by summoning them to Court. He also introduced many reforms into the relations between Naples and the Court of Rome. The number of mendicant monks was reduced, and the order of the Jesuits suppressed. These reforms produced violent quarrels with the Court of Rome; the political disputes between Naples and that Court had caused, indeed, the reform of ecclesiastical abuses to be prosecuted with greater ardour in the Neapolitan dominions than in Tuscany and Austrian Lombardy. Tanucci had also turned his attention to a reform in the laws, which formed an incongruous mixture derived from the Normans, Lombards, Aragonese, French, Spaniards, Austrians, the former conquerors and possessors of the country.

Thus Italy remained not uninfluenced by the liberal tendencies which marked the eighteenth century. The authority of the Papal See had been also reduced in the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza, which were likewise governed by a branch of the Spanish Bourbons. The new opinions had not made so much progress in Ferdinand IV’s kingdom of Sicily as in his Neapolitan dominions. The feudal system was still vigorous in that island towards the end of the eighteenth century.

Tanucci was not so successful in his foreign as in his domestic policy. He was a partisan of France, and hence he incurred the displeasure of Ferdinand’s queen, the Austrian Princess Caroline, a woman of imperious temper, sister of the Emperor Joseph II, and of Marie Antoinette. Tanucci was dismissed, and his place filled at first by the Marquis Sambuca, and then by Acton, the son of an Irish physician. The Neapolitans were indignant at seeing the arms of the French Republic affixed to the hotel of the French Embassy, and in January, 1793, a deputation of the citizens presented an address to King Ferdinand, supplicating him to declare war against France. It was easy to see that the neutrality of Naples could not long be preserved. On the 12th of July, 1793, a treaty was concluded between Sir W. Hamilton, the English Minister at Naples, and Acton, Ferdinand’s chief Minister, by which Ferdinand engaged to unite to the British forces in the Mediterranean 6,000 soldiers, four ships of the line, four frigates, and the same number of smaller vessels, Great Britain undertaking to maintain a respectable fleet in that sea, and to protect Neapolitan commerce. The Neapolitans subsequently took part in the occupation of Toulon.

PIUS VI

The Papal throne was filled, at the time of the French Revolution, by Pius VI. His predecessor, Clement XIV (Ganganelli), who had risen to the Papacy from the condition of a poor monk, had always retained the simple customs of his early life. These, however, seemed out of place in an age of inquiry, doubt, and disbelief; and it was thought that, when arguments cease to persuade, and virtue to move by its example, the best substitutes for them are pomp, splendour, and magnificence. The Cardinals, therefore, on the death of Clement, in 1774, elected Cardinal Braschi (Pius VI) as his successor. Braschi was handsome in person, eloquent in speech, refined in his tastes, of dignified manners, and a generous disposition. On the other hand, he was arbitrary and disdainful, and could ill brook opposition. A scheme was agitated in his Pontificate, originated by Cardinal Orsini, of uniting all Italy in a confederation, of which the Pope was to be the head. The chief glory of Pius VI is the draining of the Pontine marshes, a work of extraordinary magnitude and labour.

Pius VI was naturally shocked and offended by the novelties and innovations in matters of religion which accompanied the breaking out of the French Revolution. The respect with which he was treated by the Constituent Assembly soothed and appeased him for a time, but the excesses of the Legislative Assembly and of the Convention, and especially the loss of Avignon, impelled him to resort to his spiritual weapons. Hence the Emperor and the Italian Princes of his party had little difficulty in persuading Pius to enter into an offensive league against France.

The situation of Tuscany induced the Grand Duke Ferdinand, though so nearly connected with the House of Austria, formally to recognize the French Republic, January 16th, 1793, before the execution of Louis XVI. Tuscany preserved its neutrality till the following October, when the appearance of an English fleet in the Mediterranean encouraged Ferdinand to declare himself for the allies. Of the part taken in the war by Victor Amadeus III, King of Sardinia, we have already spoken. The republic of Genoa, secretly inclined to France, maintained for a considerable time its neutrality, although summoned by the English and Spanish fleet, in October, 1793, to change its policy. The port was now blockaded. Venice had also declared herself neutral. The Venetians had lost all public spirit and fallen into a sort of political quietism. At the outbreak of the French Revolution they determined on the policy of doing nothing; and they persisted in their neutrality, though solicited by many Powers, Sardinia, Russia, Austria, Naples, to take a part against France. Yet their hatred of that country peeped out on all occasions. They sent back to the French Minister the note of the Assembly acquainting them with the flight of the King to Varennes, because it did not bear Louis’s signature; they refused to reply to the notice of the King’s acceptance of the Constitution; they suffered the Austrians to violate the neutrality they had declared by marching troops through their territories; in October, 1792, when the allies were entering France, they authorized their subjects to supply the Emperor and the King of Sardinia with arms, provisions, and other necessaries; on the establishment of the French Republic they refused to acknowledge it, and though they at length consented to receive a chargé d'affaires, they would only recognize him with a puerile distinction as the Minister of the French nation and not of the republic. These and other grievances of the same kind, and especially the reception given to the Regent, under the title of Count de Lille, at Verona, towards the end of 1794, drew down upon the Venetian Republic the hatred and vengeance of the French, and served at least as pretexts for its destruction.

 Respecting the Spanish Peninsula, little need be added to what has been already said. Although Godoy was despised by every true Spaniard, yet Florida Blanca and d'Aranda had been successively compelled to give place to him; and, in 1792, he obtained, with the title of Duke of Alcudia, the supreme direction of affairs. The war, however, which he commenced with France was at first popular. The Spaniards, devoted to the Church and to their King, beheld in the republicans of France the enemies of both. They contributed largely and spontaneously to the war; the feudal lords, as in ancient times, put themselves at the head of their vassals, while the smugglers, and even the monks, formed regiments. But the enthusiasm of the nation was ill-directed by Godoy; and the successes of the Spanish arms, already described, were soon followed by reverses which rendered the King anxious to conclude a peace.

The Portuguese had shared with the Spaniards in the French war, and are said to have formed the best portion of the Spanish army. The sceptre of Portugal had been held, since February, 1777, by Queen Maria I, but her intellect having become disordered through religious melancholy, the regency was assumed in 1792 by her son Don John, Prince of Brazil, who was governed by his confessors.

CHAPTER LVIII

THE DIRECTORY