peatedly taken, and he has fucceffively defeated the Turkish officers, wherever they have ventured to meet him. May we, for its fingularity, add the following whimfical circumftance, which is related of this extraordinary man. It is faid, that at this great age, he every year marries a fine young girl of thirteen or fourteen; it however remains a doubt, whether this be the effect of conftitution, or avarice; for it appears that the monks of the order of St. Francis in the Holy-Land, having ufually given a prefent at the marriage of a chiek, to gain his favour and protection, it became at length to be confidered as an obligation, and Chiek Daher is paid a thoufand crowns a year by the friars, for his marriages.

Ali Bey found his patriarchal friend furrounded by his children and nephews, and ftrengthened by the acceffion of the Mutualis, and some other barbarous tribes, whom he had lately fubdued, and now taught to fubdue others. The war has been fince carried on in the fame loose and irregular manner as before; but can exift no longer than the present troubles in which the Porte is involved; for the lofs of Egypt muft then prove fatal to Ali Bey.

vent the furprise which attends novelty, and prepare the public for thofe greater which were ftill to fucceed. Deformity wears off by acquaintance; and perhaps they found it neceffary to familiarize themfelves with their own defigns, before they could arrive at a refolution of expofing them nakedly to the view of the world.

We have formerly feen how the breaking out of the plague in Poland, together with the war carried on in that country, afforded a pretence to the Aftrians and Pruffians, to draw lines, and form great bodies of troops upon its borders. Thefe troops by degrees entered farther both into Poland and Pruffia; and through the mutual jealoufy that then fubfifted between thofe powers, the motions and numbers on the one fide, were in a great measure regulated by thofe of the other. As the movements and defigns of the King of Pruffia are at all times alarming and fufpicious, they were at this time particularly fo to the Poles; who, from his intimate connection with Ruffia, as well as his own particular difpofition, could make no doubt of his entering into, or furthering, her moft pernicious defigns. Their opinions and affections were very differently difpofed with regard to Auftria. As the Emprefs-queen was well known to be adverfe to the whole conduct of the court of Peterfburg with refpect to Poland, and her jealoufy both of that and the court of Berlin, were equally well understood, her military movements were observed with the greatest pleasure by all the Poles, almost, of whatever party; as it was from her natural oppofition to those two inimical powers, her avowed piety,

The conduct of the great partitioning powers gradually unfolded their defigns during the negociations at Foczani. They proceeded filently in carrying on thofe arrangements which they had lately concluded; while they seemed reftrained by their enormity from making a public avowal of them. It seemed as if they endeavoured to feel the general temper and difpofition of Europe; and by a climax of fucceffive exorbitancies, to pre

and

and fuppofed true judgment in political matters, that they expected, fooner or later, the deliverance of their country.

The Pruffian troops, from their firft entrance into the dominions of Poland, without the pretence or colour of war, acted in every refpect, as if they had come to revenge unparalleled injuries, in the country of the most odious enemy; and even exceeded what is practifed upon those occafions, between civilized nations. Their monarch feems upon this occafion to have exhaufted the whole of his fertile genius, in finding out new modes of rapine, oppreffion, and tyranny. No forms were obferved; no meafures were kept; and even the ordinary appearances and trappings of juftice were fhamelessly thrown by.

It has been computed that at a moderate eftimation, he carried off in the course of the year 1771, from the province of Great Poland and the adjoining diftricts, twelve thoufand families, who were fent with their effects, to ftock the barren fands and bleak wilds of his hereditary dominions. In the fame year he published an edict, commanding every perfon, under the fevereft penalties, and even corporal punishment, to take in payment for forage, provifions, corn, horfes, &c. the money which fhould be offered by his troops and commiffaries. This money was either filver, bearing the impreffion of Poland, and worth only one third of its nominal value, or else ducats, ftruck in imitation of the Dutch ducats (which, from their intrinfic worth, are current in every part of Germany and the North), that were feventeen per cent. below them in

value. With this bafe money, he bought up corn and forage enough, not only to fupply his army for two whole years; but also to stock magazines in the country where the provifions were bought, which were afterwards converted into markets, where the inhabitants were obliged to come and re-purchafe corn, at an advanced price, for their daily fubfiftence, and to pay for it with good money; his commiffaries refufing to take back the fame coin, which they had before obliged the people to receive. It is faid, that the king gained in this fingle article of extortion and injuftice, feven millions of dollars; which, thought an amazing fum, and that the calculation may be large; yet if we recollect, that by being mafter that year of the Viftula, he became poffeffed of all the corn in Poland that was intended for the Dantzick market, befides what his troops could lay hands on in Great Poland and Pruffia, and remember at the fame time the exceeding scarcity and great price of that commodity, both in Germany and all the neighbouring countries, we may perhaps find reafon not to think the fum much exaggerated.

Exceffive contributions were at firft extorted, which were afterwards doubled and trebled, both in Great Poland and Royal Pruffia. Unheard-of gabelles were at length impofed, and the proteftant cities of Dantzick and Thorn surrounded with cuftom-houfes, at which exorbitant duties were levied upon all the neceffaries of life, as they were carried into market. word, the exactions from the abbies, convents, cathedrals, and nobles, were fo exorbitant, and at length grew fo much beyond their [B] 3

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abilities,

the election of fo young a prince as the prefent king, and the authority which it was evident Ruffia would obtain in the country during his adminiftration, precluded them entirely. This difappointment was not received, without a very visible degree of chagrin and diffatisfaction. The Auftrian minifter was accordingly recalled from Warfaw before the election took place; no other was fent to fucceed him and though the legality of the election was barely acknowledged, no friendly correfpondence was kept up with that court.

Many other parts of the conduct of the Court of Petersburg, had excited the ftrongeft diflike, if not animofity, at Vienna. The manner in which the Emprefs-queen was abandoned in the laft war, when fhe was at the point of obtaining all the dear-bought fruits of it, by recovering thofe favourite and valuable parts of her hereditary dominions, which had been fo violently wrefted from her, and by wreaking her revenge upon that moft detefted enemy, who was already feemingly in her hands, was a matter that could not be forgot, and might fcarcely be forgiven. The expulfion of Prince Charles of Saxony from the dukedom of Courland, which was a measure evident ly calculated to feclude his family from all farther connections with Poland, was confidered as much an infult to the house of Auftria as an injury to that of Saxony.

The fubfequent conduct of Ruffia in regard to the affairs of Poland, inftead of leffening, afforded new and serious causes for encreafing the diftruft and jealousy of Auftria. The haughty defpotifm and arrogance, with which that arbitrary power,

made a young man, who was its minifter at Warfaw, the dictator of a code of laws to the king and the republic; and the iron hand with which in the face of the world it ruled them both; were matters as truly alarming to Auftria, as they were dangerous to Germany in general; and as the ftrict union between the King of Pruffia and the Czarina, feemed to render the evil irremediable, the jealoufy and averfion naturally grew ftronger, in proportion to the appearance of the danger. Thefe were matters fo thoroughly understood all over Europe, that no one hesitated in the opinion, that the quiefcence of the court of Vienna in regard to Poland, proceeded entirely from its apprehenfions of that of Berlin.

When the affairs of that country were arrived at fuch a crisis, that the Confederates in the blindness of rage and fury flew to arms, the fame appearances were ftill visible at Vienna and though no public act was done in their favour, the tone, the language, and the countenance, of both the court and peo. ple, were well understood to be fo; ard fufficient causes were fuppofed for their not making a more expli-. cit avowal of their fentiments. The Confederates accordingly found a fure refuge and protection in every part of the Auftrian dominions during the whole time of the troubles.

Their manifeftos and declarations, even that which declared the throne vacant, the king an ufurper and tyrant, and recommended his deftruction as a common enemy, were printed and publifhed in them, and from thence circulated throughout Europe. The fums of money which were iffued for their fupport by the court of [B 4] Saxony,

Saxony, as well as from other quarters, were all tranfmitted to them, through the hands of the bankers at Vienna; and Hungary might be confidered as little less than their head quarters and a place of arms during the war. The fame difpofition was vifible for a long time in favour of the Turks; and it has been even afferted, that a treaty was actually entered into, and nearly concluded, between the Porte and the court of Vienna, by which the latter was to engage as a principal in the war, and to be fupported with a very large yearly fubfidy by the former.

The conferences between the Emperor and the King of Pruffia, foon changed the politics of the court of Vienna; and it is probable that their unexpected junction in opinion and councils, caufed a ftill greater revolution in thofe of the court of Petersburg. It is not indeed to be imagined, that the prefent partition of Poland, can be in any degree a favourite measure with the Empress of Ruffia, or that it at all correfponds with her original views in refpect to that country. Her great object, undoubtedly, muft have been to have kept that kingdom entire for the prefent; to have preferved, for fome time, the name and appearance of its ancient form of government, while the extended her influence in fuch a manner, as to continue in her hands the fupreme direction and controul of the whole; a fituation, in which her fuccessful war with the Porte, muft inevitably have confirmed her. By this means the would have avoided the exciting of the envy, or the apprehenfions of her neighbours, as well as that obloquy which muft arife, from the perfidious robbing

of a friend and ally, in direct breach of all treaties, as well as of her own most folemn and repeated perforal promises and declarations. Thus Poland would have answered all the purposes of a Ruffian province, until it infenfibly funk inta one; or until fuch a concurrence of circumftances prefented themfelves, as would make it unneceffary to continue the reftraint any longer; in the former cafe, which would be the more eligible, the people would have remained contented, and fancied themselves free, until by degrees they forgot the meaning of the term.

As a fteady adherence to these measures, would have been the true intereft of Ruffia, fo it feemed to have been the original line of her conduct before the interference of the other powers, though deviated from in fome inftances, by a heat and precipitation which were perhaps neither prudent nor neceffary; and would have been in fome degree confiftent with thofe folemn and public declarations which the repeatedly made, in regard to the affairs of Poland. For however equivocal the credit of fuch authorities may be upon other occafions, the admittance of her jealous and rival neighbours to a share of her fpoils, and the enabling them thereby to gain more than an equal degree of relative strength, is a conduct fo contrary to the true genius and temper of Ruffia, that no doubt fhould be made of her fincerity in any act, which militated with the opinion of its proceeding from her own choice. Upon the whole, there feems to be the strongest reafons to imagine that the fcheme for the partition of Poland did not originate in the court of Petersburg,

and