regard to their numbers and their circumstances. They were hardly more than the fervile attendants of a broken faction, unable to make a ftand by any other means than that of enflaving their country to a foreign power. ferve? With horfes, with harness, and fpare mountings for the guns? Who has been appointed my commillary for provifions? Or has there been any nomination of my quartermatter-general? And without two perfons of this defcription, it is well known that no commander takes the charge of an army." Toall these queftions he was answered, " Although none of thefe requifitions can at prefent be fupplied, the equipment of every thing fall be immediately forwarded and no time fhall be loft in fending them to you as foon as they are ready. Be your own commissary and quarter-mafter-general; exert yourfelf as indefatigably as we have done, who, in the space of two years, have augmented the army from eighteen to fifty-five thoufand men, and almost half of these cavalry. It must be confessed, that much the greater part of this cavalry are ignorant of one fingle manævre; that the faddles, bridles, and fire-arms, of this corps are all without uniformity, and the whole fo totally without arrangement, that to form them in order of battle is impoffible. This is no time, however, for thefe objections: march directly to the frontiers, aflemble what troops you can, and defend yourself to the best of your abilities. Courage, military talents, and the love of your country, will fupply every deficiency." It was thus the king spoke to his nephew, in devoting him to the service of the nation. And thus the prince replied: "I will go, for I love my country; but I go to my death; and, what is infinitely more deftrefling, to the probable facrifice of my reputation." The Polish army was widely fcattered in different parts of the kingdom. The different corps that The difficulty, or rather, indeed, the impracticability of withftanding the prodigious number of troops that were affembling from all parts of the Ruffian frontiers, did not deter the Poles from making every fort of refiftance vet in their power. Notwithstanding the felfish oppofition of the Polish nobles, to the endeavours and representation of the king, through his patriotic zeal and efforts, the army, from lefs than twenty thousand men, had been augmented to near fixty thousand. One half confifted of gentlemen, excellently mounted and accouterred, and the other half of infantry, well armed and exercifed; but they wanted appurtenances for encampment. Nevertheless they took the field under these and many other disadvantages, with an alacrity and refolution, which no hardships could impair. The command of the Polish army was entrusted, by the king, to his nephew, Prince Jofeph Poniatowski. The prince, when the king invited him to take this command, addreffed himself to his majesty as follow: "Where are my magazines? Where all thofe neceffary fupplies, the replacing of which, a war, even the most fortunate, continually requires? Where, through the Ukarine, am I to be in poffeffion of a place of fecurity? In what place can my military hofpital be eftablifhed with fafety? Where are my furgeons and my medicines? From whence am I to be furnished with my artillery of re marched matched to the frontiers, though for the most part without tents, did not arrive at the place of general rendezvous, Tulczyn, till the Ruffans had pafled Oftrog, in Volhinia, and Vilna, in Lithuania. When prince Jofeph Poniatoufki, who left Warfaw on the twenty-fixth of May, 1792, arrived at Tulczyn, his mufter fell short of 20,000 men. The troops by which he was joined were to be affembled from a diftance of fifty German, that is two hundred English miles. The length of the frontier, the defence of which was entrafted to the prince, extended from Mohilow, in Podolia, as far as Lojow, a diftance of one hundred German miles: for the protection of which he had the command of no more than about 24,000 men, at a time when the Ruffians were marching against him in three bodies, each of which was equal to the whole of his force. The first meeting of the Poles and the Ruffians took place on the twenty-fourth of May. A large party of the Coffacs advanced into the open field, to reconnoitre the difpofition of the Polish forces. Defirous of fignalizing the commencement of hoftilities by fome action that might imprefs the Ruffians with a better opinion of Polish prowefs than they feemed to entertain, the Poles marched boldly out of their encampment, and attacked them with fuch unexpected vigour, that they were put to flight, and purfued to their own camp. Encouraged by this aufpicious beginning, the Poles, two days after, attacked a larger body of Coflacs, which they alfo defeated; but in the ardour of their purfuit, they were fuddenly arrested by a ftrong body of the enemy, ambulcaded in a wood, from which they iffued out upon the Poles, and furrounded them. In this extremity, they had no other resource than the moft defperate exertions of valour. Drawing up in the compacteft order, they forced their way through the Ruffians, who were near five to one, and regained their quarters, after making a confiderable flaughter of the enemy with a much fmaller lofs on their own fide. Thefe two actions did great honour to the Poles; it was their first essay in the field, and did not fail to con vince their enemies, that they had to deal with men, whom only their own fuperiority in number, and in other advantages, would enable them to overcome. The intelligence brought to Warfaw of thefe two brilliant actions filled the public with exultation. They were of no other importance than as they proved the innate bravery of the Poles, and that with the aid of fome experience and timely fuccours, they might prove a match for the Ruffians. But this alone was important in the critical fituation of their affairs, and encouraged all men to come forward, with their warmeft efforts to ferve the public. The king in particular feized this opportunity of addrefling himself to the nation, and of reminding it of the many glorious actions performed by the Poles in former days, efpecially in Ruffia itfelf. He exhorted it to unite firmly in every poffible endeavour for the common cause, and to look on the present period as decifive of their future happiness or mifery. If they could now ftand their ground, their liberty would be fecured for ages; if on the contrary, through their own remifliefs, or the fuperior exertions of the foe, Poland were compelled to fubmit to the enflavement enslavement intended for it, numbers of years would probably elapfe before a fortunate concurrence of circumftances might enable their pofterity to recover their freedom. On the thirty-firft of May the diet was prorogued, after it had provided to the utmost of its power for the numerous demands made upon it by the neceffities of the public. The parting of the king and of the members was fuitable to the ferioufnefs of their fituation. Placing the utmost confidence in his prudence and patriotifm, they chearfully committed to him the defence of the kingdom; and he fervently requested them to circulate a fpirit of refiftance to the enemy, and of unanimity among the people, and to facrifice all confiderations to that of faving their country, by ferving it on this preffing occafion; every man to the full extent of his respective powers and abilities. His appeal to the military was remarkably forcible and pathetic. He recalled to their remembrance the many misfortunes, injuries, and humiliations, heaped upon Poland by Ruffia; and called upon their refentment and courage for vengeance. They were felected by their country as the avengers of its wrongs, and the protectors of its honour and freedom against ambitious invaders, who could claim no other right to their ufurpations than that of barbarous force and violence. The only fuperiority of the Ruffian troops over the Polish, was a longer practice of difcipline; but a brave people fighting for all that was dear to them, muft fhortly attain an equality. By the laws they were called upon to maintain by their valour; they had been emancipated from an abject ftate of flavery, to which, if conquered, they muft again return. He was ready in their company to lay down in the field of honour the few years he might have to live. And he concluded, by telling them, that as their father, their king, and their general, his laft words of command would be, to live free and refpected, or to die with honour. From the warm and fincere affection borne to the king, by all clafles of his fubjects, this admonition was received with the highest marks of approbation and refpect. They confidered him, what he was in reality, as unfeignedly interefied in the common caufe of his country; with the profperous or evil deftiny of which his own fortune was infeparably bound. The jealousy of a fecret correfpondence, and a leaning on the part of the king towards Ruffia, was entirely groundless. There was no bribe in the power of the emprefs to beftow, equal to the crown and the independence of Poland; nor can it be fuppofed, that gratitude for the poffeffion of a crown would incline him to lay it down. The king standing in this light, and his public and private character being equally irreproachable, his words never failed to make a profound impreffion. Preffed in the mean while by the continual irruptions of the Ruffian troops on every fide of Poland, the king applied to the court of Berlin for the fuccours ftipulated, by which it was fpecifically bound to affift Poland against all attempts on its independence, on whatever pretence they might be founded. The anfwer from the king of Pruffia was a pofitive denial of any obligation on his part to fulfil the terms of that treaty; which had been made with Poland Poland previously to the changes that had fince happened in its go vernment: as thefe changes had been made without his privity or concurrence, and had totally altered the fate of things, he held himself discharged from the connection he had then formed. Notwithstanding this explicit refufal of the Pruffian monarch to abide by this treaty, and the reafons alleged for this refufal, be was ftrongly fufpected of having advised those very measures of which the emprefs fo bitterly complained. He never had fignified any averfe nefs to the new conflitution, at the time of its paffing, or that he confidered it as an infringement of the treaty. His minifter, at Warfaw, had, on the contrary, been directed to announce in a formal manner his approbation of the proceedings on the third of May. This conduct, in the court of Berlin, opened a new fcene in Poland, The generality of the people had firmly relied on the co-operation of Pruffia, in the defence of the new conftitution, which had vifibly placed the Poles on a footing of more ftrength and importance than they had experienced for many years, and rendered an alliance with them of fufficient weight to be courted by thofe who might need fuch a fupport. The boufe of Brandenburgh, feeble in its origin, had not, till of late years, become poffeffed of confiderable power: the difperfed fituation of its dominions had long obftructed its afpiring views: but the acquifition of Silefia, and afterwards of all Pruffia, by the partitioning treaty that difmembered Poland, had given it a confequence, which it was now more folicitous than ever to encrease by fresh acceffions of territory. Confcious that its power was chiefly founded on ufurpation, it ftudiously fought to maintain by arms, what it had obtained by force. Ruffia had hitherto acted a joint part in ufurping whatever lay moft convenient for its ambitious purposes and Austria was not backward in acceding to their rapacious fchemes, by means of which the found means to indem nify herfelf in fome meafure for the lots of thofe provinces in Germany, wrefted from her by the celebrated Frederic. But as their triple alliance was founded upon manifeft injuftice, it was not expected to laų longer than thefe three powers found it neceflary for the accomplishment of the objects they had unitedly in view. Poland once divided between them, it never was doubted that Auftria and Ruffia, of which the mutual regard for each other had long been confpicuous, would readily confederate against the house of Brandenburgh; which neither of them, from various motives, ever confidered in a refpectable light. The recovery of Silefia would always occupy the councils of Austria, and the infatiable ambition of Ruffia would lead her to extend her acquifitions in Poland by every means that offered. Thus refentment and rapacity would jointly contribute to produce an union of thofe mighty powers against the former partner of their ufurpations, who then would be too feeble to refift their united efforts. Such was the reasonings of thofe who looked forward to the probable course of events. They were certainly juftified by long experience. Relying on precedents of this nature, they prefumed that the court of Berlin would alfo be governed by them, and prefer an union of interefts, with a powerful ally, to the temporary temporary enjoyment of part of his fpoils, in conjunction with affociates more powerful than himself, and who certainly would fooner or later ftrip him of that fhare they had at firft found it convenient to allow him. Others, however, thought differently. Confulting that ftrong propensity to immediate gain, whatever may be the aftercaft, which governs princes as well as other men, they hefitated not to predict, that the court of Berlin would feize with avidity that portion of Poland which Ruffia would offer to it, as the price of its deriliction of the Poles. Thefe, unhappily for Poland, conjectured rightly. When this fatal decifion was laid before the king and his council at Warfaw, though fully fatisfied in their own minds, as to the confequences that must in all likelihoods enfue, from this renunciation of all friendship on the part of Pruffia, they nobly determined not to aban don the defence of their country, and to perfift, to the very laft extremity, in every trial and exertion to fave it that bravery and skill could fuggeft to men who were refolved to bury themfelves under its ruins. Hoftilities were now carried on with great animofity between both parties; the Poles fought upon every occafion with a fury that often difconcerted their enemies, and the fortune of war was continually balanced by alternate fucceffes and defeats. This created no little aftonishment in the many veteran officers that commanded the Ruffian troops, and who had not expected to meet with fo obftinate a refiftance. When the Ruffians firft entered Lithuania, which was How the theatre of war, they enter tained no doubt of being before this time mafters of Warfaw, but obftructions rofe before them every day: the Polish peafantry was univerfally againft them, and refused to fupply them with provifions and forage at any price. These they referved wholly for their own troops; and moft of those peasants, that could in the least afford it, furnished thefe articles, and many others, without exacting payment. The patriotifm of the people, and the bravery of the foldiers, retarded in a confiderable degree the progrefs of the Ruffians, who were, exclufively of their baggage and artillery, compelled to load their horfes and waggons with all manner of neceflaries: this greatly incumbered their motions, while the Poles on the other hand, exempt from those incumbrances, were able to march and act much more expeditioufly. The knowledge of the country frequently enabled the Polifh troops to way-lay the Ruffians; who being, in many places, deftitute of guides, fell into ambufcades, from which they found it extremely difficult to extricate themselves, without fuffering confiderable loffes. In this fpecies of warfare, much time was confumed, and many lives loft. It was not till the tenth of June, that any action worthy of notice took place. General Judick, a Polifh officer, noted for his perfonal bravery, was attacked on that day, by a large body of Ruffians: his own was not confiderable; but after fuftaining feveral difcharges of mufketry, they rufhed with fuch impetuofity upon the Ruffians, that they were thrown into disorder, and compelled to abandon the field, after a combat of four hours, during which more than five hundred of them |