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6] ANNUAL REGISTER for the YEAR 1772. [7

the reign of more than one prince of activity and conduct to become formidable at sea. We can never consider any probability of that kind, however remote, without some serious reflections. But as the immediate effect of the late partition, is to lower France and to aggrandize Russia, Austria, and Prussia, who may thereby become a balance to the house of Bourbon, it will be always a question, whether on the whole consideration, the late proceedings can become a proper motive to Great-Britain for departing from the system, which has hitherto made her consider her nearest neighbours as her first objects of jealousy; and therefore induced her not to obstruct the growth of the other great powers on the continent, though this growth might be at the expense of weaker powers, with regard to whom the protection of the European system of balance would be lost. All these considerations, render this a problem in the British politics of no easy solution, even when it is impossible to approve of the violence which is offered to humanity and justice, in the partition of Poland.
     Whilst the three great powers are making a spoil of Poland, the unhappy king of that country is a fort of an honourable prisoner in his capital : surrounded with foreign troops, it is not yet time he should quit it ; and he must not only wait to be a spectator of the dissolution of his country, but is also doomed to light the funeral pile with his own hand. Such is the power of habit, that those who have loft all regard to the essence of justice, are still scrupulous admirers of its forms. Thus the powers in question, not satisfied with the title to their new acquisitions, which they derived from force in the first instance ; apply to the same force, for a better, in the second ; and think to sanctify their violence, by obtaining some of the outward forms of a legal right. As if the violence that makes a man deliver his right was less justifiable, than that which obliges him to sign a writing to his own destruction.
      Under the influence, however, of this tender regard to the forms of equity, the miseries of an undone king, and of a ruined people, are to be aggravated by an unprofitable and unheard-of insult. A diet is to be summoned with the bayonet at its breasts. Some persons will be forced, a few others procured, and the king himself procured, and the king himself obliged to attend this meeting. The business will probably be but short. The justice, equity, magnanimity, and the friendship of the partitioning powers, will be extolled in the highest degree ; their undoubted right, to everything they choose to take, acknowledged in the fullest terms ; and every instrument they think proper to perfect, immediately executed.
       Upon a familiar principle of justice, it is said, that the king is to be indemnified for his personal losses, at the expense of the republic. Such parts of that vast country, as either did not come within the views of the partitioning powers, or as they could not agree in the partition of, they have judiciously, as well to show their equity to the world, as to prevent the fatal consequences of present disputes among themselves, agreed to form into an hereditary dominion for the present king. This new kingdom will be held 
        


held by the same secure tenure, by which Courland has been held by its dukes, since one of them had the honour of being married to a princess of Russia : who though she had no issue, took care to entail, much more certain and lasting benefits upon that country. Whatever future revolutions may take place, the Poniatowski family will always be certain of a secure refuge in Siberia.
      The year of which we treat, was too fertile in events, for their operations to be confined to the destruction of Poland. Its annals are to be marked with one of the most extraordinary revolutions, considered in all its parts, which we can meet with in ancient or modern history. The sudden and unexpected change of government in Sweden, has not yet, however, been productive of any change in the general political state of affairs. Whether this will continue to be the case, may be a matter of some consideration. It is indeed scarcely to be imagined, that a prince, who had the dexterity to compass, and the resolution to execute so arduous an enterprize, will long continue a cypher in the system of Europe. Great revolutions and changes in government, require to be marked at the time, or to be followed, by striking and brilliant actions. The minds of men in such a situation, must not be suffered to cool ; nor are they to have leisure to make invidious comparisons between the late and present times, or to grow restless for want of occupation. Something must be held out which will attract their whole attention ; and their minds and bodies must be exercised in such a manner, that a length, when rest can be obtained, they will be glad to accept of it upon any terms, and will find themselves too happy in the enjoyment, to venture to look back to any thing that may disturb it.
      There are matters that cannot possibly escape the penetration and sagacity of a prince, who in a few months, has been able to effect such extraordinary things. Who at twenty-five years old, has outplotted the most experienced politicians ; who has out-talked the most rigid republicans in his discourses upon liberty, and outcanted the most zealous enthusiasts in his appeals to heaven.
      Such a prince will undoubtedly find other occupations for his subjects, than to make reflections upon their own condition, or comparisons between different forms of government. Despotism, in the hands of an active prince, however unhappy to the governed, sometimes makes the state respectable to its neighbours, and is capable of great exertions in war. Sweden, while under a free government, has, in a great measure, recovered the cruel shocks which she experienced, thro' the despotism and madness of Charles the Twelfth ; the people, in the wantonness of their private happiness, looked back with regret to the glorious exploits of their ancestors. It is therefore probable, that as the whole powers of the state are now centered in the hands of the king, he will use strenuous endeavours to recover some share of that rank and consequence in the system of Europe, which was supported with so much lustre by his predecessors, in the last, and the beginning of the present century.
      The revolution in Denmark, if it deserves that name, does not affect
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