regard to their numbers and their circumstances. They were hardly more than the servile attendants of a broken faction, unable to make a stand by any other means than that of enslaving their country to a fo. reign power.

The difficulty, or rather, indeed, the impracticability of withstanding the prodigious number of troops that were assembling from all parts of the Russian frontiers, did not de ter the Poles from making every sort of resistance yet in their power. Notwithstanding the selfish opposi. tion of the Pelish nobles, to the endeavours and representation of the king, through his patriotic zeal and efforts, the army, from less than twenty thousand men, had been augmented to near sixty thousand. One half consisted of gentlemen, excellently mounted and accouter. ed, and the other half of infantry, well armed and exercised; but they wanted appurtenances for encampment. Nevertheless they took the field under these and many other disadvantages, with an alacrity and resolution, which no hardships could impair. The command of the Polish army was entrusted, by the king, to his nephew, Prince Joseph Poniatowski. The prince, when the king invited him to take this command, addressed himself to his majesty as follows: "Where are my magazines? Where all those necessary supplies, the replacing of which, a war, even the most fortunate, continually requires? Where, through the Ukarine, am I to be in possession of a place of security? In what place can my military hos. pital be established with safety Where are my surgeons and my medicines? From whence am I to be furnished with my artillery of re

serve? With horses, with harness, and spare mountings for the guns? Who has been appointed my com. missary for provisions? Or has there been any nomination of my quartermaster-general? And without two persons of this description, it is well known that no commander takes the chargeofanarmy."To all these ques tions he was answered, "Although none of these requisitions can at present be supplied, the equipment of every thing shall be immediately forwarded, and no time shall be lost in sending them to you as soon as they are ready. Be your own commissary and quarter-master-general; exert yourself as indefatigably as we have done, who, in the space of two years, have augmented the army from eighteen to fifty-five thou sand men, and almost half of these cavalry. It must be confessed, that much the greater part of this cavalry are ignorant of one single manoeuvre; that the saddles, bridles, and fire-arms, of this corps are ali without uniformity, and the whole so totally without arrangement, that to form them in order of battle is impossible. This is no time, however, for these objections: march directly to the frontiers, assemble what troops you can, and defend yourself to the best of your abilities. Courage, military talents, and the love of your country, will supply every deficiency." It was thus the king spoke to his nephew, in devoting him to the service of the nation. And thus the prince replied: "I will go, for I love my country; but I go to my death; and, what is infinitely more distressing, to the probable sacrifice of my reputation." The Polish army was widely scat tered in different parts of the kingdom. The different corps that marched

marched to the frontiers, though for the most part without tents, did not arrive at the place of general rendezvous, Tulczyn, till the Russasha' passed Ostrog, in Volhinia, and Viina, in Lithuania. When prince Joseph Poniatowski, who left Warsaw on the twenty-sixth of May 1792, arrived at Tulczyn, his mus. ter fell short of 20,000 men. The troops by which he was joined were to be assembled from a distance of fifty German, that is, two hundred Eng ish miles. The length of the frontier, the defence of which was entrusted to the prince, extended from Mohilow, in Podolia, as far as Lojow, a distance of one hundred German miles: for the protection of which he had the command of no more than about 2.4,000 men, at a time when the Russians were marching against him in three bodies, each of which was equal to the whole of his force.

The first meeting of the Poles and the Russians took place on the twenty-fourth of May: Alarge party of the Cossacs advanced into the open field, to reconnoitre the disposition of the Polish forces. Desirous of signalizing the commencement of hostilities by some action that might impress the Russians with a better opinion of Polish prowess than they seemed to entertain, the Poles marched boldly out of their encampment, and attacked them with such unexpected vigour, that they were put to flight, and pursued to their own camp. Encouraged by this auspicious beginning the Poles, two days after, attacked a larger body of Cossacs, which they also defeated; but in the ardour of their pursuit, they were suddenly arrested by a strong body of the enemy, am buscaded in a wood, from which

they issued out upon the Poles, and surrounded them. In this extres. mity, they had no other resource than the most desperate exertions of: valour. Drawing up in the com pactest order, they forced their way... through the Russians, who were near five to one, and regained their.. quarters, after making a consider. able slaughter of the enemy with a much smaller loss on their own side. These two actions did great honour to the Poles; it was their first essay in the field, and did not fail to con vince their enemies, that they had to deal with men, whom only their own superiority in number, and in other advantages, would enable them to overcome.

The intelligence brought to Warsaw of these two brilliant actions filled the public with exultation. They were of no other importance than as they proved the innate bra- ·· very of the Poles, and that with the aid of some experience and timely succours, they might prove a match for the Russians. But this alone. was important in the critical situation of their affairs, and encouraged all men to come forward with their warmest efforts to serve the public. The king in particular seized this opportunity of addressing himself to the nation, and of reminding it of the many glorious actions perform ed by the Poles in former days, espe cially in Russia itself. He exhort. edit to unite firmly inevery possible endeavour for the common cause, and to look on the present period as decisive of their future happiness or misery. If they could now stand their ground, their liberty would be secured for ages; if on the contrary, through their own remissness, or the superior exertions of the foe, Poland were compelled to submit to the enslavement

enslavement intended for it, numbers of years would probably elapse before a fortunate concurrence of circumstances might enable their posterity to recover their freedom. On the thirty-first of May the diet was prorogued, after it had provided to the utmost of its power for the numerous demands made upon it by the necessities of the pub. lic. The parting of the king and of the members was suitable to the sc#iousness of their situation. Placing the utmost confidence in his prodence and patriotism, they chear. fully committed to him the defence of the kingdom; and he fervently requested them to circulate a spirit of resistance to the enemy, and of unanimity among the people, and to sacrifice all considerations to that of saving their country, by serving it on this pressing occasion; every man to the full extent of his respective powers and abilities. His appeal to the military was remarkably forcible and pathetic. He recalled to their remembrance the many misfortunes, injuries, and humiliations, heaped upon Poland by Russia; and called upon their resentment and courage for ven. geance. They were selected by their country as the avengers of its wrongs, and the protectors of its honour and freedom against ambitious invaders, who could claim no other right to their usurpations than that of barbarous force and vio, lence. The only superiority of the Russian troops over the Polish, was a longer practice of discipline; but a brave people fighting for all that was dear to them, must shortly attain an equality. By the laws they were called upon to maintain by their valour; they had been emancipated from an abject state of sla

very, to which, if conquered, they must again return. He was ready in their company to lay down in the field of honour the few years' he might have to live. And he concluded, by telling them, that as their father, their king, and their general, his last words of command would be, to live free and respected, or to die with honour.

From the warm and sincere affection borne to the king, by all classes of his subjects, this admonition was received with the highest marks of approbation and respect. They considered him, what he was in re ality, as unfeignedly interested in the common cause of his country; with the prosperous or evil destiny of which his own fortune was inseparably bound. The jealousy of a secret correspondence, and a leaning on the part of the king towards Russia, was entirely groundless. There was no bribe in the power of the empress to bestow, equal to the crown and the independence of Poland; nor can it be supposed that gratitude for the possession of a crown would incline him to lay it down. The king standing in this light, and his public and private character being equally irreproach able, his words never failed to make a profound impression.

Pressed in the mean while by the continual irruptions of the Russian troops on every side of Poland, the king applied to the court of Berlin for the succours stipulated, by which it was specifically bound to assist Poland against all attempts on its independence, on whatever pretence they might be founded. The answer from the king of Prussia was a positive denial of any obligation on his part to fulfil the terms of that treaty; which had been made with

Poland

Poland previously to the changes that had since happened in its go. vernment as these changes had been made without his privity or concurrence, and had totally altered the state of things, he held himself discharged from the connexion he had then formed. Notwithstanding this explicit refusal of the Prussian monarch to abide by his treaty, and the reasons alleged for this refusal, he was strongly suspected of having advised those very measures of which the empress so bitterly complained. He never had signified any averseness to the new constitution, at the time of its passing, or that he considered it as an infringement of the treaty. His minister at Warsaw, had, on the contrary, been directed to announce in a formal manner his approbation of the proceedings on the third of May.

This conduct, in the court of Ber. lin, opened a new scene in Poland. The generality of the people had firmly relied on the co-operation of Prussia, in the defence of the new constitution, which had visibly placed the Poles on a footing of more strength and importance than they had experienced for many years, and rendered an alliance with them of sufficient weight to be courted by those who might need such a support. The house of Brandenburgh, feeble in its origin, had not tilloflate years, become possessed of considerable power: the dispersed situation of its dominions had long obstructed its aspiring views: but the acquisition of Silesia, and afterwards of all Prussia, by the partitioning treaty that dismembered Poland, had given it a consequence, which it was now more solicitous than ever to increase by fresh accessions of territory. Con. scious that its power was chiefly

founded on usurpation, it studiously sought to maintain by arms, what it had obtained by force. Russia had hitherto acted a joint part in usurping whatever lay most conve. nient for its ambitious purposes : and Austria was not backward in acceding to their rapacious schemes, by means of which she found means to indemnify herself in some mea sure for the loss of those provinces in Germany, wrested from her by the celebrated Frederic. But as their triple alliance was founded upon manifest injustice, it was not expected to last longer than these three powers found it necessary for the accomplishment of the objects they had unitedly in view. Poland once divided between them, it never was doubted that Austria and Rus sia, of which the mutual regard for each other had long been conspicu ous, would readily confederate against the house of Brandenburgh; which neither of them, from various motives, ever considered in a respectable light. The recovery of Silesia would always occupy the councils of Austria, and the insati-, able ambition of Russia would lead her to extend her acquisitions in Po. land by every means that offered. Thus resentment and rapacity would jointly contribute to produce an union of those mighty powers against the former partner of their usurpations, who then would be too feeble to resist their united efforts.

Such was the reasonings of those who looked forward to the probable course of events. They were cer. tainly justified by long experience. Relying on precedents of this na. ture, they presumed that the court of Berlin would also be governed by them, and prefer an union of interests, with a powerful ally, to the

temporary

temporary enjoyment of part of his spoils, in conjunction with associates more powerful than himself, and wo certainly would sooner or later strip him of that share they had at first found it convenient to allow him. Others, however, thought, differently. Consulting that strong propensity to immediate gain, what ever may be the aftercast, which governs princes as well as other men, they hesitated not to predict, that the court of Berlin would seize with avidity that portion of Poland which Russia would offer to it, as the price of its dereliction of the Poles. These, unhappily for Poland, conjectured rightly.

When this fatal decision was laid before the king and his council at Warsaw, though fully satisfied in their own minds, as to the conse. quences that must in all likelihoods ensue, from this renunciation of all friendship on the part of Prussia, they nobly determined not to abandon the defence of their country, and to persist, to the very last extre. mity, in every trial and exertion to save it, that bravery and skill could suggest to men who were resolved to bury themselves under its ruins.

Hostilities were now carried on with great animosity between both parties; the Poles fought upon every occasion with a fury that often disconcerted their enemies, and the fortune of war was continually ba. lanced by alternate successes and defeats. This created no little astonishment in the many veteran officers that commanded the Russian troops, and who had not expected to meet with so obstin te a resistance. When the Russians first entered Lithuania, which was now the theatre of war, they entertain.

ed no doubt of being before this time masters of Warsaw, but obstructions rese before then every day: the Polish peasantry wasuniversally against them, and refused to supply them with provisions and forage at any price. These they reserved wholly for their own troops; and most of those peasants, that could in the least afford it, furnished these articles, and many others, without exacting payment.

The patriotism of the people, and the bravery of the soldiers, retarded in a considerable degree the progress of the Russians, who were, exclusively of their baggage and artillery, compelled to load their horses and waggons with all manner of necessaries: this greatly incumbered their motions, while the Poles, on the other hand, exempt from those incumbrances, were able to march and act much more expeditiously. The knowledge of the country frequently enabled the Polish troops to way-lay the Russians; who being, in many places, destitute of guides, fell into ambuscades, from which they found it extremely difficult to extricate themselves, without suffering considerable loss.

In this species of warfare, much time was consumed, and many lives lost. It was not till the tenth of June, that any action worthy of notice took place. General Judick, a Polish officer, noted for his personal bravery, was attacked on that day, by a large body of Russians: his own was not considerable; but after sustaining several discharges of musketry, they rushed with such impetuosity upon the Russians, that they were thrown into disorder, and compelled to abandon the field, after a combat of four hours, during which more than five hundred of

them