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22] ANNUAL REGISTER

abilities, that the canons of Gnesna shut up the church, and abandoned their cathedral; the priests fled from their cures, the monks from their monasteries, and the nobles from their estates. Those whom age or infirmities prevented from flying, were bound hand and foot, and carried off as criminals.

In the mean time, the young men were every where seized, and sent off to fill up the Prussian armies. When all the ingenuity of device, and all the resources of oppression, rapine, and tyranny, seemed at length to be exhausted; a new one was discovered, which was before unheard-of in the history of mankind. Every town and village was obliged to furnish a certain number of marriageable girls; to each of whom the parents were to give as a portion, a feather-bed, four pillows.one cow, two hogs, and three ducats in gold; all of which were sent to stock the king's dominions. One small town in Posnania, with its district, was obliged to furnish General Belling with fifty marriageable girls and their portions; and the roads were covered with waggons, loaded with this new species of contribution. Thus were the children torn from the arms of their unhappy parents; and the wretched brides obliged to abandon their country, their religion, their language, their friends, and all the dear connections of life, to be transported to unknown countries, married to men they never saw, and to live in a state of mutual hatred, with people whom they could not understand. These oppressions continued from the latter part of the year 1770, to the same time in the year 1772, when the partition of Poland was formally declared. 

CHAP. III.

Retrospective view of the conduct of the court of Vienna with respect to Poland, from the commencement of the troubles in that kingdom. The unhappy effects which it had upon the Poles. Unexpected union in politics and sentiments, between the courts of Vienna and Berlin; probable effect of that junction, upon the conduct of the court of Petersburg. The Confederates surprize the castle of Cracow; are besieged, and make a long defence in it. Marshal Zaremba proposes to surrender upon terms; is refused by the king, and received by the Russians. Royal salt-mines seized by the Austrians. Joint manifesto presented by the partitioning power's. Specifications from the Empress-queen, of the countries which the proposed to seize upon. Specification from the Empress of Russia. Letters patent of the King of Prussia, containing a deduction of his rights. Some observations upon them.

THE court of Vienna continued long undetermined and irresolute as to the measures which it should pursue in respect to the affairs of Poland. The election of the present king, under the immediate influence of Russia, was equally repugnant to its political interests, and to its strong predilection in favour of the house of Saxony. For though the electoral prince was not yet of age, its hopes were not loft of re-instating that family in Poland upon a future occasion, until the

For the YEAR 1772. [23

the election of so young a prince as the present king, and the authority which it was evident Russia would obtain in the country during his administration, precluded them entirely. This disappointment was not received, without a very visible degree of chagrin and dissatisfaction. The Austrian minister was accordingly recalled from Warsaw before the election took place; no other was sent to succeed him: and though the legality of the election was barely acknowledged, no friendly correspondence was kept up with that court.

Many other parts of the conduct of the court of Petersburg, had excited the strongest dislike, if not animosity, at Vienna. The manner in which the Empress-queen was abandoned in the last war, when she was at the point of obtaining all the dear-bought fruits of it, by recovering those favourite and valuable parts of her hereditary dominions, which had been so violently wrested from her, and by wreaking her revenge upon that most detested enemy, who was already, seemingly in her hands, was a matter that could not be forgot, and might scarcely be forgiven. The expulsion of Prince Charles of Saxony from the dukedom of Courland, which was a measure evidently calculated to seclude his family from all farther connections with Poland, was considered as much an insult to the house of Austria, as an injury to that of Saxony.

The subsequent conduct of Russia in regard to the affairs of Poland, instead of lessening, afforded new and serious causes for increasing the distrust and jealousy of Austria. The haughty despotism and arrogance, with which that arbitrary power, made a young man, who was its minister at Warsaw, 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 Austria, as they were dangerous to Germany in general; and as the strict union between the King of Prussia and the Czarina, seemed to render the evil irremediable, the jealousy and aversion naturally grew stronger, in proportion to the appearance of the danger. These were matters so thoroughly understood all over Europe, that no one hesitated in the opinion, that the quiescence of the court of Vienna in regard to Poland, proceeded entirely from its apprehensions of that of Berlin. 

When the affairs of that country were arrived at such a crisis, that the Confederates in the blindness of rage and fury flew to arms, the fame appearances were still 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 people, were well understood to be so; and sufficient causes were supposed, for their not making a more explicit avowal of their sentiments. The Confederates accordingly found a sure refuge and protection in every part of the Austrian dominions during the whole time of the troubles. Their manifestos and declarations, even that which declared the throne vacant, the king an usurper and tyrant, and recommended his destruction as a common enemy, were printed and published in them, and from thence circulated throughout Europe. The sums of money which were issued for their support, by the court of Saxony,

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