This beginning of Russian interference was a visible mark of the decline of Poland. The Polish army was reduced at the instance of Peter the Great, and the evil example of the Saxon Court brought in immorality, prodigality, and effeminacy. Protestants were persecuted and ex cluded from public Miley. The election of Au gustus Ill. (1733-63) was accomplished by the most shameless bribery and under the compulsion of Russian troops, and led to the War of the Polish Sueeessiou. (See SeecEsstox WAns.) His reign was of the same character as that of his predecessor. Toward its close the more enlightened of the Poles entered into a league to promote the establishment of a well-or ganized hereditary monarchy. But the conser vative or republican party was equally strong, and relied on lZussian influence, was used to continue the divisions in the country. Catha rine II. of Russia determined at the beg,inning, of her reign to control Poland or take it, as it barred the way to the accomplishment of her great ambition. to bring Russia fully into the circle of the \Vt.-4cm powers. On the death of Augustus Ill. she, acting in harmony with Fred erick of Prussia, put forward as a candidate for the Polish throne Stanislas (Augustus) Poni atowski. an old lover of her ow•n. This roused the national spirit of the Poles to intense op position. The monarchic• party. led by Prince Czartoryski, had succeeded in abolishing the /ibernin rcto and in otherwise strengthening the Government. Catharine, in alliance With Prlissin, seized the pretext furnished by the oppression dissidents of the Protestant and Greek communions by this dominant party. and appeared as the champion of religious liberty. Russian troops entered the country and forced the election of Poniatowski (1764). The Con federation of liar (so called from Ilar in Podolia) was formed in 1768 by a few zealous patriots, and entered upon a vigorous resistance to Russia. Similar confederations were organized. and Turkey seized the occasion to attack Russia. To avoid the danger of a general war and to obtain eompensation for the inevitable seizure of Polish territory by Russia, the governments of Prussia and Austria proposed a treaty of parti lion, which w•as concluded at Saint Petersburg, August 5, 1772. Russia acquired a part of the old Lithuania. comprising an area of 42,000 square miles, with a population of L800,000; Prussia took West Prussia without Danzig and Thorn, and the district on the Netze, 13,000 square miles. with 415,000 inhabitants; and Aus tria received Galicia and 27,000 square miles. with 2.700.000 inhabitants.
_Members of the Polish Diet were freely bribed to consent to the cessions. The old an archical Constitution with the rct a was restored. The country was now aroused to a sense of its danger; and the result was the adoption of the admirable Constitution of 1791, which gave political rights to the cities, civil rights to the peasantry, and rendered the kingly authority hereditary. 14'rederick William of Prus sia promised the Polish patriots support against Russia. Catharine 11., however, by intrigues and bribery, won a small number of the higher Polish nobility, who formed the Confederacy of Targo vitza (1\lay, 1792), and protested against the new Constitution as derogatory to the ancient liberties. Catharine, thus armed with a pretext for inter ference, invaded Poland with an overwhelming army. The Poles fought bravely under Kosciusz ko (q.v.) and won a victory over the Russians
at Dubienka (July 17, 1792) ; but King Stanislas, after pledging his loyal support to the nation, gave his adhesion to the Confederacy of Targovit za. A Prussian army now entered Poland, and the country, its strength broken, was snhjeeted to a second partition (July 17, 1793). Russia took a large part of Lithuania, half of Volhynia, l'o dolia. and the portion of the Ukraine which had remained with Poland-06.000 square Miles, with about 3,000,000 inhabitants. Prussia appropri ated the westernmost part of the kingdom, 22,000 square miles, with 1,100.000 inhabitants. A Diet convened at Grodno was compelled to sanction this 'cession.' A general rising of the Polish peo ple to resist this dismemberment of their country took place in 1794. Kosciuszko was made theta tor and drove the Russians from Warsaw•, but dis sension among the l'oles ruined their cause at the moment of seeming triumph. The Russians and Prussians reentered the country with increased numbers. and on October 10, 1794, Koseiuszko was derisively defeated and taken prisoner at Maciejowice by the Russians. On Novemher 8th Suva roll' entered Warsaw•. and Polish resistance came to an end. The third and last partition (October 24, 1795) distributed the remainder of the eountry. Russia taking 45,000 square miles, with 1.200,000 inhabitants; Prussia, 21.000 square miles (including the capital, Warsaw), with 1,000,000 inhabitants; and Austria, 18.1100 square nudes, with 1,000,000 inhabitants. King St;inislas resigned his crown and died at Grodno as a pensioner of Russia in 1798. Napoleon, who promised the restoration of Poland and thereby gained the support of the patriots, was hailed with satisfaction, hut all that Napoleon accomplished was the establishment. by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807), of the Dimity of \Warsaw•, formed out of the Polish territories taken by Prussia in 1793 and 179.5. This State received a fairly liberal con stitution, and King Frederick Augustus of Sax ony as its nominal head, the real power being exercised by the French Emperor. The duchy was increased by Western Galicia, ceded by Austria in the Treaty of Sch;inbrunn, in 1809. The Poles furnished a considerable contingent to the French armies. The disaster to the French in Russia in 1812 and the advance of the allied army in 1813 put an end to the existence of the duchy. The partition of Poland was rearranged by the Con gress of Vienna in 1815. Prussia retained \Vest Prussia and recovered the western portion of the territory embraced in the Duchy of Warsaw. which region was constituted into the Grand Duel*. of Posen: Austria recovered the territory which she had taken in the first partition of Po land in 1772 (Galieia) ; Russia was secured in the possession of all the territories that she had appropriated in the three partitions; out of the bulk of the Duchy of Warsaw was created a new Kingdom of Poland, which was to be united with the Russian Empire by a personal union. The city of Cracow. with a small surrounding terri tory, was erected into a republic, which was placed under the protection of the Great Powers. This final partition of Poland gave Russia 220.500 square miles, Prussia 26,000 square miles, Aus tria 35.500 square miles. Of the portion which was to belong to the Emperor of Russia. about 49,000 square miles were included in the new Kingdom of Poland.