acquire lasting consistency under the new Constitution, and be inseparably united with Saxony; Prussia, on the other hand, would gladly have seen Poland free from foreign influence, but internally weak and powerless. This divergence of views however did not for the present lead to any breach. The increasingly warlike spirit of the Jacobins daily gave the friendship of Prussia a higher value in the eyes of Austria; the Emperor, therefore, on the 7th of February 1792, was induced to sign a definitive treaty in entire accordance with the views of Prussia, and to promise his protection, not to the new Constitution of Poland, but to some free Constitution or other. All the European Powers, and more especially Russia, were to be invited to take part in the transaction.

The Empress Catharine received intelligence of these proceedings with ill-concealed rage. It is true that the new treaty condemned Poland to eternal insignificance, but it also placed the tutelage of the ruined State, not in Russian hands alone, but in those of the three Courts in common. To this Catharine was resolved on no account to agree. Towards the Poles themselves she had no other sentiments than wrath and contempt. She heard with suppressed anger of the insults to which her friends in Warsaw were daily exposed on her account, and observed with lively satisfaction the feebleness and incapacity with which the new Polish cabinet entered on the administratron of affairs. As early as May 1791, she gave orders to General Soltikoff to station an army of 42,000 men near Polotzk, and directed Prince Potemkin to hold still larger masses of the Danube army in readiness, as a support. After the conclusion of the truce with the Turks in August, the preparations against Poland were carried on with increased zeal, and on a more extended scale. The chiefs of the fallen party in Poland met with an honourable reception in Russia, and were encouraged by

1

1 Miliutin, Krieg von 1799.

t

CH. I.] CATHARINE'S MACHINATIONS AGAINST POLAND. 353 express promises of support. Every thing was prepared to deal a crushing blow at the constitution of the 3rd of May, and to make Poland bow more humbly than ever before the despotic will of Russia. There was no question of resistance on the part of Poland in her state of indolence and confusion; Catharine's only anxiety arose from the German Powers, and especially from Leopold, who with the greatest frankness and unconcern had recommended his Polish-Saxon plan to her consideration. She wished if possible to prevent them from interfering at all in the Polish question. "Should they oppose my plans," she wrote at this time, "I shall try to appease them by offering them some other compensation, or even a Polish province." This was her intention in the most. unfavourable case; for the present, she hoped to amuse them by holding out prospects of this kind, until Poland was once more occupied by Russian armies, and then to decide according to her own arbitrary pleasure. Nothing therefore could be more opportune for her than the warlike tone assumed against Austria by the French in the spring of 1792; for it was certain, that if a great war should break out in Belgium and Italy, the Emperor could only assist the Poles by his good wishes. "I rack my brain," said Catharine to a confidant, "to make the Viennese and Berlin cabinets interfere in the affairs of France. I should like to see their hands full of business, that my own might be free; for I have very many unfinished schemes before me, and Austria. and Prussia ought to be fully occupied that they may not hinder me." 1

Subsequent events, as we have seen, were entirely in accordance with her wishes. The Gironde seized the helm of the State, and urged on the commencement of the war against Germany with passionate eagerness. At Vienna the Emperor Leopold died, and his successor stood inexperienced, undecided and covetous-assailed on either side by the im

1 Smitt, Suwarow, II. 359.

portunities of Russia and France. The Court of Berlin received intelligence of the plan for uniting Saxony and Poland, and was therefore completely cured of all sympathy for the latter country. Catharine's wishes were fully realized; the two German Powers were otherwise engaged, and were compelled to abandon Poland to the superior force of Russia. The King of Prussia now recurred to the idea which had been previously mooted by Russia, and seeing the impossibility of protecting Poland, he wished at all events not to leave the whole of that country at the disposal of Catharine. The Empress at this time proposed a negotiation with the two Powers on the fate of Poland; and the King resolved to demand a Polish province for himself. He took it for granted that Russia would take no steps against Poland before coming to a final understanding with Germany. But in fact the more evident the wishes of Prussia became, the more zealously did Catharine urge on her warlike preparations, that she might as soon as possible take exclusive possession of Poland, and then, as mistress of the situation, rid herself for ever of the troublesome interference of the Germans.

CH. II.]

CHAPTER II.

PARTITION OF POLAND. PRELIMINARIES.

355

CATHARINE SUPPORTS THE POLISH MALCONTENTS.-PRUSSIA INCLINES TOWARDS RUSSIA. CATHARINE PROPOSES A SEPARATE TREATY TO PRUSSIA.-AUSTRIA MAKES ATTEMPTS IN ST. PETERSBURG TO OBTAIN THE SAME.-CONQUEST OF POLAND BY THE RUSSIANS.-PRUSSIAN ALLIANCE OF AUG. 7TH 1792.INTERNAL CONDITION OF AUSTRIA UNDER LEOPOLD II, AND UNDER FRANCIS II-HAUGWITZ'S NEGOTIATION IN VIENNA.-PROPOSITION THAT PRUSSIA SHOULD RECEIVE GREAT POLAND, AND AUSTRIA, BAVARIA.— -DISCONTENT

OF FRANCIS II.

SINCE the autumn of 1791 the chiefs of the Polish malcontents had been assembled in St. Petersburg. The most distinguished of those who came from the kingdom of Poland were Felix Potocki and the crown general Rzewuski; from Lithuania, the Brothers Kossakowski-the elder of whom had been Bishop of Wilna, and the younger a general in the Russian service. They met with a splendid reception, because the overthrow of the May constitution must in any case be the first step in the Russian undertaking. Catharine admitted them into her Court circle, gave them a handsome monthly pension, and entered into confidential consultation with them through her Ministers. They abused the wicked democrats of Warsaw, who by abolishing the privileges of the nobility had destroyed the ancient freedom of Poland, and with it the bulwark of political conservatism. They lauded Russia as the refuge of the true old Poland, and as the guardian of legal order; and they claimed her assistance, in the full self-consciousness of irreproachable patriotism. The Empress for some months avoided giving any definite answer, but in the meantime concluded a definitive peace with the Turks at Jassy, and collected a splendid army on the Polish frontier. It was not until the

Gironde had seized the reins of power in Paris, by which the war with Austria was rendered certain, that she threw off her reserve, promised the Polish nobles her armed assistance in restoring the authority of law in Poland (at the same guaranteeing the integrity of the Polish territory), and allowed Potocki to draw the outline of a Confederation, in which he and his adherents were to unite in subjecting Poland to their rule.

At the end of March, Prussia's declaration of the 13th arrived in St. Petersburg, in which she expressed her agreement in Catharine's views respecting Poland, and her readiness to adopt the settlement proposed by the Empress. Prussia explained that she was only prevented from immediately proceeding to action, because, according to the treaty of the 7th of February, she was bound to hear the views of Austria. This was all that Catharine wanted for the moment, it was sufficient to assure her that Poland would receive no aid from Germany. On the 8th of April, therefore, she sent orders to General Kachowski to lead 64,000 men of the army of the Danube-well-disciplined troops, whose valour had been tested in the Turkish war-to the Southern frontiers of Poland. At the same time General Kretschetnikoff began his march from the North and East with 32,000 men towards Lithuania. The superiority of the Russian forces was overwhelming; there were scarcely 50,000 regular soldiers in the whole extent of Poland, and even these were miserably armed, without discipline, and badly paid. Under these circumstances Catharine was not to be turned from her purpose by an Austrian despatch, in which Kaunitz still recommended the union of Poland and Saxony as the best expedient. When once assured of a mutual understanding with Prussia, and of a French war, she paid no further regard to Austria's dissent, and promised herself to make the Court of Vienna pay as dearly as possible for its desertion of Joseph's policy, and its efforts for the restoration of Poland. For, the present, she contented herself