" Oh bloodiest picture in the book of time, Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime !" A large portion of the eastern provinces were seized by Russia ; Austria appropriated a fertile tract on the south west ; while Prussia acquired a commercial district in the north west, including the lower part of the Vistula. Po land was thus robbed of 70,000 square miles, or about a fourth of her whole territory.
Stanislaus, thus deprived of a great part of his domi nions, did not, however, give way to unavailing sorrow and despondency ; he exerted himself strenuously to pro mote the happiness and prosperity of that portion which was left him. He made various improvements in the in ternal economy of the state ; he introduced and cherished a taste for agricultural pursuits ; the peasantry, so long neglected or enslaved, were the objects of his most anx ious solicitude, and now began to assume that rank and importance in the state to which their usefulness entitled them ; and a national system of education was established on the most advantageous principles. That Stanislaus effected such great improvements is much to be wonder ed at ; for, with all his merit, he could never acquire the esteem of his subjects and his power was extremely cir cumscribed. Availing herself of the hatred which the grandees of Poland telt towards their sovereign, Russia in troduced into the constitution an executive power, thus ren dering him little less than a simple president. This power was confided to a permanent council, composed of eighteen senators and an equal number of the equestrian order, over the election of whom Stanislaus had little or no in fluence. The command of his own body guard was wrest ed ft on) him ; and other innovations were introduced, which deprived him of almost all dignity and authority.
But the great body of the nation were by no means satisfi ed with the nature of their constitution, and with the spirit of rivalry and opposition which universally prevailed. The present state ol things they regarded as incompatible with their prosperity and security, either as individuals or as a nation. For three vears previously to 1791, various attempts had accordingly been made to establish a new constitu tioli upon more liberal and more unexceptionable principles. This the diet effected at the period last mentioned, to the great satisfaction of the king, and of almost the whole of his subjects. This new constitution was so admirably constructed, that Mr. Burke remarked ol it, that the con dition of all was made better, and the rights of none were infringed ; and Kant, the celebrated German philosopher, emphatically observed, nisi scare?), opus humanuni esse, The king now' enjoyed the executive power in all its plenitude ; he nominated all the great of ficers of state, even the senators; a council was allowed him, composed of the archbishop of Gnesna, five minis-.
tens, and two secretaries ; the senate, and the national re presentation, consisting of the provincial deputies and the representativesof towns, formed the two legislative cham bers ; the liberum veto was abolished ; a general toleration proclaimed ; the civil liberty 1) f the peasantry, now no longer adstricti glebes, was guaranteed by law ; freedom was extended to every man the moment he entered the Polish territory ; and the privilege of purchasing the lands of the nobility, when exposed to sale, granted to bur gesses. The greatest defect of their former constitution, elective monarchy, was also removed ; and the throne de clared hereditary in the house of Saxony.
The hopes of happiness and independence, however, which this new order of things was so well calculated to afford, was but of very short continuance. Poland had been too long the scene of anarchy and opposition, to be so easily reconciled to obedience and tranquillity. A few of the nobles, irritated at the sacrifice of some of their privileges, repaired to the court of Petersburg; and their representations corresponding with the ambitious views of the empress, she immediately dispatched an army into Poland, under the pretext of guaranteeing the constitution as established in 1772. The Poles were not backward in making preparations to oppose her. All animosities were forgotten in the desperate struggle; the nobles hesitated not to surrender their plate and valuable jewels to enrich the treasury ; every rank and class of men in the state were resolved to conquer or die in the defence of their li berties and independence. In vain, however, prince Po niatowsky, general of the army, (nephew of the king,) supported, by the intrepid Kosciusko, performed prodi gies of valour. Catherine was almost every where trium phant. And a letter written by her to Stanislaus, threaten ing to double or triple her forces unless he yielded, induc ed that benignant monarch, in order to prevent the farther effusion of human blood, to surrender at discretion. He was removed to Grodno, to await the determination of the empress. Nor did she allow her intention to remain long concealed. In the beginning of 1793, a manifesto was published by the courts of Russia and Prussia, declaring that, to remove from their respective frontiers the dan gerous influence of the anarchical principles recently pro claimed in Poland, they had resolved to unite to their do minions several of the provinces of that kingdom.