thefe confiderations, he railed the fiege of Warfaw, on the fifth of September, after it had lafted two months, and he had fuftained fevere lofles. He expressed much diffatiffaction at the dilatorinefs of the Ruflians. The fact was probably, that they referved the capture of Warfaw for themselves, and were not forry at his failure. Large bodies of them were on their march in all directions, and, notwithstanding the courageous exertions of the Poles, they began to apprehend that the immenfity of the numbers they would foon have to contend with, muft in the iffue overwhelm them, as it had done before.

The celebrated Suwarrow had been placed at the head of the armies deftined to act against Poland. He was now on his march towards Warfaw, and to be joined on the way by feveral Ruffian bodies, of great force. Senfible of the neceffity of preventing fuch junctions, Kofciufko hafted with all poffible diligence to obftruct them. But before he could collect a fufficient strength, a Polish corps of confiderable force fell in with the main body of the Ruffians near Brzefk, on the borders of Lithuania, on the nineteenth of September, and was defeated with great lofs by Suwarrow, who continued his march to the capital. On receiving this intelligence, Kofciufko refolved immediately to proceed againft the Ruffian general, before he should be reinforced. The Polish army, under Kofciufko, confifted of twenty thousand men; but on hearing that baron Ferfon, a Ruffian general, was on the point of joining Suwarrow, he marched with fix thousand en to int ercept him; leaving the ramainder with prince Poniatowski,

to force any other divifions of the enemy that might endeavour to close upon his rear.

The decifive action that enfued, was fought upon the tenth of October. The beginning of it was favourable to the Poles, who twice repulfed the Ruffians; but inconfiderately purfuing them too far, they were furrounded by their fuperior numbers, and after a most defperate defence of more than five hours, were routed with a dreadful flaughter. One half of them were killed or taken, the other, by dint of uncommon valour, made good their retreat. The lofs of the victors was fo great, that inftead of moving forward, they were obliged to retire to a place of fafety. This day decided the fate of Poland, and of Kofciufko. His capacity and courage were eminently difplayed in this fatal engagement. Three horfes were killed under him: when the laft fell, he was at the fame time wounded by a Coffack, who was going to repeat his blow, when he was prevented by a Ruffian officer, who made Kofciusko a prifoner.

The lofs of this battle was attributed to prince Poniatowski. Through unskilfulnefs or treachery, he fuffered the enemy to crofs the Viftula, though he had four thoufand men to oppose them; and while Kofciufko was engaged, he made no movement to his affiftance.

The defeat and capture of Kofciufko filled Warfaw with confternation. The heads of the patriotic party exerted themselves to keep alive the fpirit of the people: but they fucceeded only in part; the majority had placed their chief confidence in Kofciufke, and did not imagine that any one remained to

replace

replace him. The Ruffians were entirely of this opinion; and, prefaming on the difcouragement of the Poles, fent feveral infulting meffages to the king; to which he anfwered, however, with a compofed dignity, fuitable to his character and ftation. The different bodies of which the Ruffian army confifted, being now united under the command of Suwarrow, his whole effective force amounted to near fixty thoufand men. That of the Polith garrifon in Warfaw did not exceed ten thoufand. They were Commanded by the two generals Madalinski and Dambrowski, whole invincible courage determined them to defend the city to the laft extremity. It was affaulted by Suwarrow in the fame manner as he had done Ifmailow in the last Turkish war. After a most intripid and refolute refifiance of eight hours, the Refans forced their way into the fuburb of Prague, divided from the other port of Warfaw by the Viftula: they flaughtered indifcriminately every one they met; neither women nor children efcaped their barbarity; and the numbers that perished in this horrible maffacre were computed altogether at twenty thousand.

All hopes were now at an end, and the chiefs of the patriots endeavoured to open a negociation with Suwarrow; but he rejected them as rebels, and refused to treat with any but the king and the lawfully established magiftracy. A depatation from thefe waited upon him accordingly; but could obtain no other terms than fecurity of life and property, on furrendering the city at difcretion; to which the Ruffian general added from his own otion, forgiveness for the past.

In confequence of this agreement, the executive council, appointed by the infurgents, refigned their autho rity to the king, and all who refufed to accede to the capitulation, were allowed to depart, with this admonition, however, that they would not efcape, and when taken muft expect no quarter. This number was about thirty thoufand; but they were fo clofely purfued and prefled by the Pruffians and Ruffians, on every fide, that, wanting provifions and amunition, they were in a fhort time compelled to difperfe; a few only making their way out of the confines of Poland. The Ruffians took poffeffion of Warfaw, after difarming the inhabitants, on the ninth day of November. An army of thirty thoufand men were quartered in the city, and encamped around it, and batteries of cannon planted against it on every fide. Towards the clofe of December, fome bands of infurgents, who were difperfed in the provinces, made all poflible hafte to furrender. The courts of Petersburgh and Berlin divided between themselves, and that of Vienna, what had remained, fince the laft partition, in 1793, of Poland, at their plea fure; and the cruel courtiers of the emprefs fhared amongst them the poffeffions of a great number of the prefcribed owners. Stanislaus Auguftus was fent to Grodno, in Lithuania, where he was condemned to live obfcurely on a penfion that was granted him by the emprefs; while prince Repnin, appointed governor of the provinces ufurped by Ruffia, oftentatiously difplayed the pomp of a fovereign. The nobles Zajoncheck and Kolontay, who were among the firft and warmeft fupporters of the revolt headed by Kofciusko,

Kofciufko, efcaped to the Auftrian territory, where the rights of hofpitality being in their perfous violated, they were detained in captivity. Kofciusko himfelf, with Ignatius Potocki Kapufias, and fome others, were tranfported to Peterf burgh, and fhut up in dungeons. Among these unfortunate men was the young poet Niemchevitch, the intimate friend and companion of Kofciutko,* wounded, and made prifoner with him. The blood he had loft for his country was not the only injury with which Catharine reproached Niemchevitch. He had compofed verfes against her in all the boldness and energy of fatyre. Nor was this all; there appeared at Warfaw, not only pieces, afcribed to Niemchevitch, in verfe and profe, but caricature prints also, in which the emprefs was very much infulted. Her majefty had him at firft confined in the citadel of Petersburgh, and afterwards fent him to Schluffelburg, where he was treated with great feverity.

The emprefs, in a manifefto, under the name of UNIVERSAL, publifhed after the partition of Poland, in 1793, guarantees to her new fubjects the fafety of their perfons and properties, and farther profefles, an intenion to indemnify them for the damages they have fuftained, through the marching of troops ef

pecially in the laft war. "The firft action of our authority," he adds, "being a teftimony of benevolence, in favour of fubjects, that are newly come under our dominion, and of folicitude for the welfare of the country they inhabit, we are apt to think, that they will gratefully receive this mark of favour, and will know how to value, as they ought to do, the defire we announce here, of gaining their hearts by our favours, and to attach them to their ancient mother country, by the hopes of the advantages we offer them, instead of fubduing them by dint of arms. We hope that, anfwering our generous views, they will fend up to heaven their thanksgivings for their being returned into the bofom of their ancient mother country, that adopts them for the fecond time; that the objects of their zeal and of their endeavours will be, to confolidate them in the faithfulness they owe us, and in a conftant fubmiffion to our laws; that they will unite themfelves, with heart and foul, to our faithful fubjects, the Ruffians; that, in fhort, they will form, as they did formerly, a refpectable nation, always tractable, always faithful to their monarchs, always valiant and invincible, whereby they will render themselves truly worthy of the folicitude we fhew to them, as a tender mother,

who

mife and fwear to God Almighty, by his Holy Gofpel, to be always ready to ferve, faithfully and loyally, her imperial majefty, the moft ferene emprefs, grand lady, Catharine Alexievna, autocratrix of all the Ruffias, and her well-beloved fon, grand duke, Paul Petrovich, her lawful fucceffor, to go for that purpofe, to yield up my life, and to thed the laft drop of my blood, to pay due and perfect obedience to the commands already iffued, or hereafter to iffue from the authorities appointed by her; to fulfil and maintain them all confcientiously, to the best of my power; to contribate, with all my ftrength, to the maintenance of the peace and quiet which her majefty has eftablished in my country; and to have no comJaunication or intelligence whatever with the difturbers of that quiet, either mediately or immediately, either publicly or privately, either by actions or by advice, and whatever be the particular occafion, circumftance, or caufe, that may lead to it.

"In cafe, on the contrary, any thing fhould come to my knowledge, prejudicial to the interefts of her imperial majefty, or to the general welfare, I will not only firive to remove it at the time, but I will oppole it with all the means that fhall be in my power, to hinder it fom coming to pafs. I will fo conVOL. XXXVII.

duct myfelf, in all my actions, as it behoves me, like a faithful citizen, to behave towards the authorities which her majefty has fet over me, and as I muft anfwer for it to God and his terrible judgement. So may God help me, as well in my body as in my foul.

In confirmation of the profelfion made by this oath, I kifs the holy word and cross of my Saviour."

The final diffolution of the Polish common wealth, and difmemberment of the extenfive kingdom of Poland, naturally calls back our attention to a fummary view of the viciffitudes of its hiftory and government.

The first part of the hiftory of Poland cannot be confidered in any other light than as a mafs of fable, illuminated with fome feattered rays of truth. Little, therefore, can be certainly known refpecting the origin of the Polifh government. There are, however, feveral circumftances to direct our opinion. The defcription Tacitus has left us of the tribes, from whom the Poles are moft probably defcended, the analogy of other northern nations, and the general tenor of the Polish hiftory, tend to prove, that the great body of the people enjoyed a high degree of freedom, as well as a confiderable influence on the meafures of government. Although the fovereign power was generally continued in the fame family, there was no eftablifhed rule of hereditary fucceffion, If a free election did not take place on every vacancy, the content of the nation, exprefled in a general diet, was always neceffary to confirm the nomination of a fucceffor to the ducal dignity. While the government remained on this footing, [D]

the

the people were in fact free, and yet the fovereign power appears to have been fubject to no conftitutional reftrictions. Neither the prerogatives of the duke, nor the privileges of the people, were defined by poitive law. Cuftom feems to have formed the only reftriction to either. The fovereign carried his power as far as he thought he could depend upon the fubmiffion of the nation; and the people fometimes exerted their right of expelling a tyrannical mafter, and afferting their freedom by force.

The first circumftance that tended to exert a permanent influence on the form of the government, and the condition of the people, was the practice of beftowing fiefs upon feudal principles, which was introduced in the beginning of the ninth century. Through the continued exercife of command, the nobles proceeded, by infenfible gradations, to regard the pealants under their jurifdiction as their property. The fpirit of the people was by degrees broken, and they yielded."

Another event, which contributed to ftrengthen the power of the ariftocracy, was the introduction of the Chritian religion into Poland, in the latter part of the 10th century, when the fpiritual tyranny of Europe was at its height, and the delpotic principles of the Roman Catholic church was received along with the catholic faith. The apoftles of this church, far from inculcating the divine parity and fimplicity of their predeceflors, which are fo powerfully recommended by Chrifi, his difciples, and the first Chriftian converts, affumed in their miffion a tone of authority fuitable to the high claims of their temporal head. From either the

piety or the folly of the kings and nobles, the higher clergy in Poland, as in other counties, foon faw themfelves in poffeffion of ample territories, invefted with all the privileges of the nobility, and, in fome cafes, with a more extenfive authority than could be claimed by any other fubject. The body of the clergy, well trained to fubordination, feconded with zeal the views of their leaders. While their territorial jurifdiction gave them the fame intereft with the nobility to encroach on the rights of the peafants, the blind veneration attached to their character, facilitated their ufurpations. Thus the domineering fpirit of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, concurring with the arbitrary principles of the feudal fyftem, gave an eafy victory to the clergy and the nobility over the liberties of the people. Thefe were excluded from the diet of election, the nobility and gentry, referving to themselves the fole right of regulating the fucceffion to the fovereignty. The abridgement of perfonal liberty quickly followed the lofs of political confequence. Oppreflions were mul tiplied. A variety of vexatious claims were, from time to time, eftablifhed against them. They were gradually deprived of the rights of men, as well as thofe of citizens. The law was too weak, or too corrupt, to afford them relief; and they funk into a state of fervitude, from which they have never fince emerged.

Attempts were indeed made to reftore them to the protection of law, and the rank of freemen; but thefe attempts failed of fuccefs.

It is but juftice to acknowledge, that the heads of the church of Rome often interfered, and with

much