Enthusiasm, which was a predominant feature in his character, imparted an oracular tone of authority and ma jesty to all his words and expressions, which, on this ac count, are still commemorated and applauded. When taking his departure from Warsaw in his campaign against the Turks, he said emphatically to the ambassadors at his court, "Tell your master that you have seen me mount my horse, and that Vienna is safe !" In this expedition, though the greater part of his army were well mounted, one battalion was so extremely ill clothed, that prince Luniboriski advised him, for the honour of Poland, not to exhibit it before the allies. Disregarding this sug gestion, he exclaimed, when the battalion was passing be fore the allied troops, " Examine these men attentively ; they are invincible ; and have sworn, that in time of war they will wear no other dress but that of the enemy ; iu the last war they were clothed after the Turkish fashion." After the defeat at Vienna, a gilt stirrup which had be longed to Mustapha having been found, " Take that stir rup to the queen," cried he, "and tell her, that he, to whom it belonged, is conquered." And at the same time lie wrote to the queen, " that the grand vizir had made bins his heir, and that he had found in his tent the value of several millions of ducats. So," added he, " say not of its what the Tartar women say when they see their hus bands return empty-handed, You are not men, since you come home without booty !" Such was John Sobieski, the last illustrious monarch that filled the throne of Poland. His character, with all its defects, we delight to contemplate, as it affords us a bright spot on which to pause amid the general gloom. " The spirit of discord and anarchy," says Air. Coxe, was laid for a time by his transcendent genius. Under his auspices Poland seemed to revive from the calamities which had long oppressed her, and again to recover her ancient splendour ; such is the powerful ascendancy of a great and superior mind." The contentions and commo tions which followed his death we have no time at present to describe. It may be sufficient to remark that, though the prince of Conti had been elected by a majority of votes, Augustus, elector of S ixony, backed by a power ful army, was ultimately declared successor to Sobieski. Augustus began his reign auspiciously by concluding a peace with the Turks, by which Kaminieck and Podolia were added to his dominions. But this was the only fa vourable transaction in which, during a long reign, he was engaged Charles XII. the celebrated king of Sweden, having invaded his territories, compelled him to surren der the crown to Stanislaus Leczinski, a Pole of noble rank, whose elevation, however, was but of short con tinuance. The battle of Pultowa dissipated the Swedish power. and Augustus was restored through the friend ship of Russia, though not without making the most in glorious concessions to that nation. Surrounded by Rus sian and Saxon troops, bound to obey every order he re ceived from the court of Petersburg. his reign was with out authority and without honour. He was succeeded, at his death, in 1733, by his son of the same name, though not without the most formidable opposition on the part of the French king, who espoused the cause of Stanislaus, whose daughter he had married. Augustus II. had even less merit than his father. His reign was an unvaried scene of anarchy and rebellion. So extremely unpopular was he, and so completely divested of any thing like power, that. when driven from Saxony, his patrimonial do minions, the Poles would scarcely afford him an asylum among them. And after an inefficient and unhappy reign, he died at Dresden in 1764, and was, not unfortunately, doomed to be the last of his family who attempted to wield 'he sceptre of Poland. This ill-fated country had been for some time regarded by Russia, and not without reason, as a tributary province ; and accordingly Catherine II. when the throne became vacant, compelled the diet to elect for king Stanislaus Poniatowski, under the name of Stanislaus Augustus,—a Pole of noble rank, who, having resided in Petersburg, had by his address and abilities rendered himself agreeable to the empress. He was an amiable and patriotic, though not a very energetic cha racter. Whatever had been his talents, however, Poland before his time was rapidly hastening to decay ; and du ring his reign he saw it completely erased from the chart of the world.
The causes which led to this catastrophe, though known to every reader, it may not be improper shortly to investigate. The reformed religion, though early intro duced into Poland, was, not for two centuries very gene rally adopted. The Protestants, called Dissidents, (a term which also comprised those of the Greek church,) were tolerated, though they were obliged to labour under many civil disabilities During the interregnum that preceded the election of Poniatowsky, a decree had been made by the diet, by which the dissidents were, in a great mea sure, forbidden the Iree exercise of their worship, and totally excluded from all civil and political privileges.
The history of almost every nation in Europe has esta blished the impropriety and danger of such a step. As liberty of conscience, and the undisturbed freedom of worshipping Gi,d publicly according to its dictates, are privileges the most dear, and of which no earthly polite, has a right to deprive us, a decree, like that in question, is calculated to divide the interests of the community, to unsheath the sword of civil war, and thus to render the nation an easy prey to the ambition of a foreign foe. This was precisely the result in the present instance. The dissidents could not submit without a struggle to the de privation of their most invaluable privileges They com bined unanimously to endeavour to accomplish the repeal of this decree, and, for this purpose, applied for ad'ice and assistance to some of the most eminent powers of Europe. And accordingly Russia, Prussia, Great Bri tain, and Denmark, made remonstrances to the govern ment of Poland on this subject. These remonstrances, however, were without effect ; for the decree was con firmed by the coronation diet held after the king's elec tion. The dissidents in the mean time presented to the government petitions and memorials; and the decision of the question was at last referred by the diet to the bishops and senators. And upon a report from them, the diet made some concessions, which, however, were far front satisfying the dissidents, who thought it absurd that the redress of their grievances should be entrusted to those very persons who were the authors of them. The dissi dents, whose cause was now openly espoused by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, were not to be flattered by the con cessions of these persecutors, nor overawed by their power. They formed confederacies for their delence in province, and were determined to resist unto blood in support of their rights and privileges. Nor were the Popish clergy and their adherents slow in making pre parations. The Confederation of Me Barr, the hope and bulwark of their party, took up arms. The cries of li berty and religion became every where the signal of a war, the true object of which with the Catholics was, not only to disperse or destroy their opponents, but to dethrone Stanislaus, whom they regarded as friendly to the dissi dents, and to rescue Poland from the influence of Russia. The confederates, as the Catholics were now termed, feebly supported by Saxony and France, were vanquished in almost every battle; and the dissidents would have been secured in the open and unshackled profession of their faith, had the sovereigns to whom, in lid mean de gree, they owed their success, been actuated by any re gard to their cause, or had not trampled under foot every principle, which the law of nations,—which the law of nature should have taught them to cherish and reverence.
These sovereigns, however, instead of being animated in the cause of civil and religious liberty, were, under the falsest pretences, labouring solely to extend the bounda ries of their respective dominions, and to promote the ag grandizement of their power. Nothing less than the dis memberment of Poland, and the partition of it among themselves, was their object, in the assistance they af forded the dissidents,—an object which could only be at tained, or at least more easily attained, by fomenting in ternal divisions, and thus undermining the resources and unanimity of the kingdom. This plan, it is thought, was first contemplated by Prussia; but Russia and Austria readily enough embraced it, though all these kingdoms at different periods owed much of their glory, and even their very existence, to the country which they thus re solved to destroy. A great proportion of Poland was thus seized upon by these, kingdoms, and a treaty to this effect was signed by their plenipotentiaries at Petersburg in Feb. 1772. The partitioning powers having forced the Poles to call a meeting of the diet, threatened, if the treaty of dismemberment was not unanimously sanctioned, that the whole kingdom should immediately be laid under mi litary execution, and be treated as a conquered state. The glory of Poland was past ; and though some of the nobles, rather than be the instruments of bringing their country to ruin, chose to spend their days in exile and poverty, the measure was at length agreed to ; and Stanislaus him self, threatened with deposition and imprisonment, was prevailed upon to sanction it. Europe, though astonished at what was taking place in Poland, remained inactive. The courts of London, Paris, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, indeed, sent remonstrances against this usurpation ; but remonstrances without a military force will, as in the case before us, be always unavailing.