"ed of, nothing to fuffer: fo far as it is gone, it probably is the moft pure and defecated public good, which ever has been conferred on man"kind." Scarcely had Poland and its patriotic fovereign begun to tafte the bleffings of their happy regeneration, when the imperious Catherine, without a shadow of pretence (unless from the approximation of liberty, which she never meant to admit into her empire), invades the republic with an army of fixty thousand men, and threatens to back them in cafe of refiftance with an additional force of ninety thoufand. The Polanders not conceiving that the internal regulation of their Government could afford any pretence to a foreign power to make war upon them, and having no hoftile defigns upon any of their neighbours, had totally neglected even to think of warlike preparations. Encouraged however by their truly heroic prince, they made a most resolute ftand against these defpotic invaders, and under a great inferiority of numbers and difcipline gained fome very signal and brilliant advantages. The King however finding the conteft to be fo very unequal, was unwilling to opprefs his beloved fubjects for refources, which now began to fail him. That fame benevolent difpofition which had prompted him to co-operate in the Revolution, now urged him to fpare the fruitlefs effufion of his fubjects' blood; he fummoned a coun

cil of all the Deputies that were then at Warsaw, and communicated to them the last dispatches from the Emprefs, which peremptorily infifted upon abfolute and unqualified fubmiffion. He particularly grounded the neceffity of their fubmitting upon the unprovoked but irresistible union of Auftria and Pruffia with Ruffia to fubdue, if not to dismember and divide their kingdom. From henceforth that unfortunate country was degraded again into her former flavery, and may thence forth be looked upon as a province to the Ruffian Empire.

Since Great Britain is now in alliance with Pruffia, it will be highly proper to remark that fhe had alfo entered into a defenfive alliance with Poland fo lately, as on the 23d of April 1790 by which it had been expreffly ftipulated, "That the contracting parties should do all "in their power to guarantee and preferve to "each other reciprocally the whole of the territo"ries which each other then poffeffed. That in "cafe of menace or invafion from any foreign

power they should affift each other with their "whole force if neceffary. That if any foreign

power whatever should prefume to interfere in "the internal affairs of Poland, his Pruffian Majefty fhould confider this as a cafe falling with"in the meaning of the alliance, and fhould affift "the republic according to the tenor of the forego

1

"ing

"ing article, that is, with his whole force." It will be readily fuppofed that Poland upon the first intimation of hoftilities claimed from the court of Berlin the performance of a treaty fo recently entered into with the exprefs view of upholding the Conftitution, which they were then framing. But his Pruffian Majesty in answer to their application told them that the treaty was dated previous to the new Conftitution, which had eftablished a new order of things, and that therefore he held himself abfolved from his engagement. It interests us alfo to know, that his Pruffian Majesty had been confidentially confulted about the formation of the new Conftitution of Poland, and that he had actually fuggefted and recommended fome of the obnoxious acts which the Empress complained of in her declaration against the Poles. And that when the new Conftitution of Poland was propofed to his Majefty he gave not the flightest intimation that the new order of things would diffolve his alliance: fo far from it, that on the 17th of May 1791, Mr. Goltz the chargé des affaires from Berlin was commiffioned formal

Those who juftify our prefent war against France by the refpect we owe to treaties, will do well to examine, what by treaties we are bounden to do for Poland and Dantzic, particu. larly as to the protecting and preferving them whole and entire, &c. Vide Treaty of Oliva, and thofe of 1436, 1474, 1631, 1655, 1659, 1707, 1725, &c.

ly to announce to his Polish Majesty the King of Pruffia's entire approbation of the new arrangement in Poland. In the federative fpirit of this age of open and fecret alliances, the aptitude of the contracting parties to perform their engagements is not the last nor the least object of diplo matic attention.

In tracing the facts and events which naturally arreft the observation of an hiftorian, it becomes frequently neceffary to recall the attention of his reader to the spirit and principles from which they proceed. In the beginning of this month, Europe beheld more than three hundred thousand men in the field, with the avowed view of fupporting or fubverting the Revolution of France. It must be remembered at the fame time that the Government of France was founded upon a limited monarchy. That this fituation of France had given rife to the Convention of Pilnitz, excited the philippics of Mr. Burke; and the indignation and execration of this country against that fyftem, armed Pruffia and the Empire, and cemented many private confederacies amidft fubordinate powers, which the uncertainty of the grand iffue ftill keeps locked up in prudential fecrecy.

No fooner was the manifefto of the Duke of Brunswick received in Paris, than immediately the King wrote a letter to the National Affembly expreffive of his surprise and contempt of the performance,

formance, of his general love of peace, his fincere attachment to the Conftitution, and his determined refolution to oppofe the hoftile efforts of the combined powers. The mifchievous effects of this manifefto upon France are without measure or calculation. The letter was read in the Affembly, and a motion for fending it to the eighty-three departments was rejected. It was urged by Ifnard and Thuriot to be a mass of falfehood and infincerity, and that, in the prefent moment of alarm and danger, his known duplicity ought not to be trufted. At this moment were admitted to the bar of the Affembly the Envoys from the Commonalty of Paris, with Petion at their head, who demanded, in the name of the forty-eight fections, that the King should be excluded from the throne, and that the management of affairs during the interregnum should be entrusted to refponfible minifters, until a new King fhould be elected by a National Convention. He recapitulated every circumftance, from the beginning of the Revolution, that could render the King odious and fufpected by the Nation that he too had taken a part against them in the Convention of Pilnitz, and was indefatigable in his attempts to bring about a counter-revolution. His fpeech, which was in writing, was delivered in to the Prefident; but the Affembly came to no refolution upon it. In the evening of the fame day, the King fent to ac