In vain had Straislaus written on the 22nd of June to the empress Catherine, proposing that she should appoint a successor to him, and place the grand-duke Constantine on the throne of Poland: he was upbraided, by way of reply, with having broken the pacta conventa, and most urgently admonished to accede to the confederation of Targowiça.

Alarmed by this letter, and threatened by the Russian ambassador, who signified to him verbally the final will of his mistress, the king summoned to him on the 22nd of July his ministers, the two marshals of the diet, and his two brothers. He acquainted this council with his determination to sign the act of confederation of Targowiça, that is to say, of the traitors to the country, in order, as he alleged, to preserve Poland from another partition. Almost all the members of the council had previously guessed his intention, which several of them combated in speeches full of energy and patriotism, but to no purpose. On the following day the king signed the act of confederation.

This event produced universal consternation. The army murmured aloud; and the marshals of the diet quitted Warsaw, leaving behind them a solemn protest: while all who possessed large estates, had numerous families, or whose private affairs would not permit them to quit the country, were compelled to follow the king's example. Poland now wore a most melancholy aspect. Its capital, a few months since a brilliant scene of joy and happiness, was plunged into grief and mourning. The silence of death every where prevailed, and in every face were impressed chagrin, discontent, despair.

During this brief struggle of the Poles for their national independence, so general a sympathy was excited in their behalf in Great Britain, that a public subscription was set on foot, and supported by all the most respec

table persons in the nation, for the purpose of assisting their efforts. If the precipitate submission of Stanislaus frustrated the design, the fact, nevertheless, is worthy of record, as one among the many proofs exhibited by the English of their abhorrence of injustice, and their readiness to aid those who are suffering from oppression and tyranny.

From the moment that the king subscribed the act of confederation, the inhabitants of all the provinces were required to accede to it. Every one, the king himself not excepted, was forced to declare that he regarded the proceedings of the constitutional diet as despotic acts; that he considered the new confederation as the saviour of Poland, and the empress Catherine as the pillar of Polish liberty. The 15th of August was fixed for the term, beyond which signatures should not be accepted. All the officers, even subalterns and soldiers, who were suspected of attachment to the constitution of the 3rd of May, were dismissed from the army: the rest were separated into small divisions, which were surrounded by more numerous bodies of Russian troops. Many military men were discharged unpaid; the distinctions of honour, which they had earned with their blood, were taken from them; and the guard of all the arsenals was committed to the Russians.

The confederates instituted a generalité, which was to be the central point of all operations. In the Polish provinces, Felix Potocki, Rzewuski, and Branicki, superintended its composition, and in Lithuania the Kossakowski. The choice fell upon men known for base and servile submission to their superiors. Like all others of that class, they were equally distinguished by their arbitrary acts, and by a most revolting abuse of their power. They set out with declaring all the decrees of the last diet invalid. The police-commission was suppressed; that of war was

deprived of all authority over the army, which was transferred to two grand-generals. The public civil officers appointed by the diet were displaced; the regular courts of justice were broken up, and tribunals of the confederation appointed in their stead; these durst not pass any sentences, unless agreeably to the instructions which they received; and, though the choice of the members must have satisfied the generalité respecting their decisions, still it reserved to itself the final appeal. Though it incessantly spoke and pretended to act in the name of liberty, it prohibited upon severe penalties the printing of any thing reflecting upon the ordinances and regulations issued by itself.

Malachowski, marshal of the diet, Ignatius Potocki, who was endued with all the qualities that constitute the accomplished statesinan, and Kollontay, who with a highly cultivated mind and brilliant administrative talents. combined an enterprising character, were cited before this generalité: but the universal indignation excited by their conduct deterred those tools of foreign despotism from further proceedings. They prosecuted, nevertheless, their other plans, and did their utmost to expunge not only all traces but likewise the very remembrance of the constitution of the 3rd of May.

It is scarcely to be presumed that the three authors of the confederation of Targowiça, Felix Potocki, Rzewuski, and Branicki, meant to sacrifice their country from motives of private interest; for all three enjoyed honours and wealth, which left them nothing to covet. Wounded self-love, ambition, false notions respecting the true interests of Poland, apprehensions lest the innovations introduced there should affect their fortunes, and, lastly, extravagant ideas of the power of Russia, and the confidence which they placed in the generosity of the empress, and the interest which she appeared to take in the welfare

of their country, were probably the motives which caused them to act as they did. If their conduct was not on this ground the less criminal, still it must be admitted that far fewer outrages occurred in the Polish provinces than in Lithuania, where the Kossakowski committed all sorts of excesses. In justice also to Felix Potocki, it is right to add that he was incensed at the personal revenge which was wreaked, but which it was not in his power to hinder. The chiefs of the confederation had received an assurance from Petersburg that the Russian army in Poland should only be employed in the restoration of order, and that no new partition was contemplated. Still the direction which that army began to take in its march, and the care with which it avoided Great Poland, awakened a suspicion that there must exist some specific agreement between Russia and Prussia; nor was it long before this suspicion was changed to certainty by the advance of the Prussian troops, while the Russians made no movement to prevent it.

On the 10th of December the generalité despatched a letter of complaint to Petersburg, and meanwhile assured the Poles that the great evils which they had to endure from the presence of the Russian troops were to be ascribed solely to the constitutional diet, that the atrocities perpetrated by the soldiers were but temporary, and that the Russian army would retire as soon as the republican constitution was restored. Of this Felix Potocki seemed so thoroughly convinced, that he urged and effected the appointment of a deputation to frame this republican constitution, which was to give back to the Poles their freedom and the rights of their ancestors.

Turgot, comptroller-general of the finances

Levities by which the queen loses her popularity

Ancient ladies at court

A morning party

Mademoiselle Bertin and the fashions

Extravagant profusion at court

Necker becomes director of the finances

France joins the revolted American colonies against

Great Britain

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