Pola

But external aid was useless so long as Poland was hampered by her anarchical constitution. The most indispensable reforms had been frantically opposed, the debate on the reorganization of the army had alone lasted six months. It was only by an audacious surprise that Kollontay and his associates contrived to carry through the new constitution. Taking advantage of the Easter recess, when most of the malcontents were out of town, they suddenly, on May 3, brought the whole question before the diet and demanded urgency for it. Before the opposition could demonstrate, the marshal of the diet produced the latest foreign despatches, which unanimously predicted another par tition, whereupon, at the solemn adjuration of Ignacy Potocki, King Stanislaus exhorted the deputies to accept the new consti tution as the last means of saving their country, and himself set the example by swearing to defend it.

The revolution of May 3, 1791, converted Poland into an hereditary limited monarchy, with ministerial responsibility and duennial parliaments. The liberum veto and all the intricate and obstructive machinery of the anomalous old system were forever abolished. All invidious class distinctions were done away with. The towns, in a special bill confirmed by the new constitution, got full administrative and judicial autonomy, as well as a certain measure of parliamentary representation; the personal privileges of the gentry, such as possession of land and access to office in the State and in the Church, were thrown open to the towns men. The peasants were placed under the protection of the law, and their serfdom was mitigated, preparatory to its entire aboli tion. Absolute religious toleration was established. Provision was made for further periodical reforms by subsequent parliaments.

Russia Overthrows the Constitution.

The constitution of May 3 had scarce been signed when Felix Potocki, Severin Rzewuski and Xavier Branicki, three of the chief dignitaries of Poland, hastened to St. Petersburg, and there entered into a secret convention with the empress, whereby she undertook to restore the old constitution by force of arms, but at the same time promised to respect the territorial integrity of the republic.

Entering Polish territory with Russian troops, the conspirators formed a confederation at the little town of Targowica in the Ukraine, protesting against the new constitution as tyrannous and revolutionary, and at the same time the new Russian minister at Warsaw presented a formal declaration of war to the king and the diet. The diet met the crisis with dignity and firmness. The army was at once despatched to the frontier; the male population was called to arms, and Ignacy Potocki was sent to Berlin to claim the assistance stipulated by the treaty of March 19. 1791.

The king of Prussia, in direct violation of all his oaths and promises, declined to defend a constitution which had never had his "concurrence." Thus Poland was left entirely to her own resources. The little Polish army of 46,000 men, under prince Joseph Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kokiuszko, did all that was possible under the circumstances. For more than three months they kept back the invader, and, after winning three pitched battles, retired in perfect order on the capital (see PONIATOWSKI, and KogcmszKo). But the king, and even Kollontay, despairing of success, now acceded to the confederation ; hostilities were suspended; the indignant officers threw up their commissions; the rank and file were distributed all over the country; the reformers fled abroad; and the constitution of May 3 was abolished by the Targowicians as a "dangerous novelty." The Russians then poured into eastern Poland; the Prussians, at the beginning of i7o3, alarmed lest Catherine should appropriate the whole republic, occupied Great Poland ; and a diminutive, debased and helpless assembly met at Grodno in order, in the midst of a Russian army corps, "to come to an amicable understanding" with the partitioning powers.

Second Partition of Poland.

After every conceivable means of intimidation had been unscrupulously applied, the second treaty of partition was signed at three o'clock on the morning of Sept. 23, 1793. By this pactum subjectionis, as the Polish patriots called it, Russia got all the eastern provinces of Poland, extending from Livonia to Moldavia, comprising a territory of 96,751 square miles, while Prussia got Dobrzyli, Kujavia and the greater part of Great Poland, with Thorn and Danzig. Poland was now reduced to one-third of her original dimensions, with a population of about 3,500,00o.

Kogciuszko and the Third Partition.

The focus of Polish nationality was now transferred from Warsaw, where the Tar gowicians and their Russian patrons reigned supreme, to Leipzig, whither the Polish patriots, Kokiuszko, Kollontay and Ignacy Potocki among the number, assembled from all quarters. From the first they meditated a national rising, but their ignorance, enthusiasm and simplicity led them to commit blunder after blunder. The first of such blunders was Kokiuszko's mission to Paris, in Jan. 1793. He was full of the idea of a league of re publics against the league of sovereigns ; but he was unaware that the Jacobins themselves were already considering the best mode of detaching Prussia, Poland's worst enemy, from the anti French coalition. Kokiuszko received an evasive reply, and re turned to Leipzig empty-handed. In the meantime, certain officers in Poland had revolted against the reduction of the Polish army to 15,000, imposed upon the country by the Partition Treaty. Kokiuszko himself condemned their hastiness; but the march of events forced his hand, and in March, 1794, he came to Cracow, proclaimed a national insurrection and assumed the powers of a dictator. He called the peasants to arms, and they responded nobly, in return for which he supplemented the pro visions of the Constitution of 1791 by a manifesto giving them complete freedom. At first, Kokiuszko's arms were almost uni versally successful. The Russians were defeated in more than one pitched battle ; three-quarters of the ancient territory was re covered, and Warsaw, and Vilna, the capitals of Poland and Lithuania respectively, were liberated. The first serious reverse, at Szczekociny, was more than made up for by the successful defence of Warsaw against the Russians (July 9–Sept. 6). But even during that heroic defence, mob lawlessness in Warsaw and violent dissensions in the supreme council and in the army, began to frustrate the superhuman efforts of the unfortunate but still undaunted dictator. The appearance of overwhelming masses of Russian troops, together with the open hostility of Austria as well as Prussia did the rest, and Kokiuszko's insurrection re ceived its death-blow on the battlefield of Maciejowice, where he himself was wounded and taken prisoner. Warsaw was taken amidst a terrible massacre of the population in the suburb of Praga, and the remainder of the troops capitulated a few weeks later.

The greed of the victorious powers nearly led to a rupture between Austria and Prussia ; but after some dissensions, the third partition of Poland was effected by successive treaties in 1795 and 1796. Austria had to be content with Western Galicia and Southern Masovia, while Prussia took Western Masovia with Warsaw. Russia annexed all the rest, and was afterwards to tear even parts of their booty from the two others. Thus the name of Poland was wiped out from the map of Europe, to reappear only after more than a century. (R. N. B. ; R. Dv.)