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24] ANNUAL REGISTER For the YEAR 1772 [23

Saxony, as well as for other quarters, were all transmitted to them, through the hands of the bankers at Vienna; and Hungary might be considered as little less than their head quarters and a place of arms during the war. The same disposition was visible for a long time in favour of the Turks; and it has been even asserted, 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 supported with a very large yearly subsidy by the former.

The conferences between the Emperor and the King of Prussia, soon changed the politics of the court of Vienna; and it is probable that their unexpected junction in opinion and councils, caused a still greater revolution in those of the court of Petersburg. It is not indeed to be imagined, that the present partition of Poland, can be in any defree a favourite measure with the Empress of Russia, or that it at all corresponds with her original views in respect to that country. Her great object, undoubtedly, must have been, to have kept that kingdom entire for the present; to have preserved, for some time, the name and appearance of its ancient form of government, while she extended her influence in such a manner, as to continue in her hands the supreme direction and controul of the whole; a situation, in which her successful war with the Porte, must inevitably have confirmed her. By this means she would have avoided the exciting of the envy, or the apprehensions of her neighbours, as well as that obloquy which must arise, from the perfidious robbing of a friend and ally, in direct breach of all treaties, as well as of her own most solemn and repeated personal promises and declarations. Thus Poland, would have answered all the purposes of a Russian province, until it insensibly sunk into one; or until such a concurrence of circumstances presented themselves, as would make it unnecessary to continue the restraint and longer; in the former case, 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 steady adherence to these measures, would have been the true interest of Russia, so it seemed to have been the original line of her conduct before the interference of the other powers, though deviated from in some instances, by a heat and precipitation, which were perhaps neither prudent nor necessary; and would have been in some degree consistent with those solemn and public declarations, which she repeatedly made, in regard to the affairs of Poland. For however equivocal the credit of such authorities may be upon other occasions, the admittance of her jealous and rival neighbours to a share of her spoils, and the enabling them thereby to gain more than an equal degree of relative strength, is a conduct so contrary to the true genius and temper of Russia, that no doubt should be made of her sincerity in any act, which militated with the opinion of its proceeding from her own choice. Upon the whole, there seems to be the strongest reasons to imagine, that the scheme for the partition of Poland did not originate in the court of Petersburg, and that its acquiescence in the measure, proceeds only from the necessity of the present conjuncture. 
The first circumstance that seemed to indicate any change in the system of the court of Vienna, was the throwing out of some hints of some ancient claims, which the state of Hungary were said to have upon Poland. Though these were but imperfectly expressed, they were sufficient to excite a considerable alarm in a country, which had already too many causes for being suspicious of the designs of its neighbours; upon which the Empress-queen wrote a letter with her own hand to the King of Poland, in the month of January, 1771, wherein, after the strongest assurances of unalterable friendship for him and the republic, and a request that the motions of her troops should give no alarm to either, she concluded by assuring him, that she never had entertained a thought of seizing any part of him dominions, nor would ever suffer any other power to do so.
Notwithstanding the apparent sincerity of these declarations, others of a different nature were published in the course of that year by her troops in Poland. By these latter, the claims were renewed in general terms, but without any particular specification of their nature of extent, it being professed, that they should continue dormant until the conclusion of a peace, when they should be properly examined, and settled in an amicable manner; it was however declared, with an apparent reference to those claims, that certain territories, which were occupied by the Austrian troops, should be protected from all insults whatsoever, whether on the part of the Russians or the Confederates.
The equivocal conduct of Austria was still continued, and though the fatal treaty of partition, was signed early in the year of which we treat, Feb. 1772, no apparent change took place in it for several months after. It would seem as if the court of Vienna, had been at first either ashamed of the infamy, or shocked at the enormity of this transaction; for it is said, that Court Kaunitz, the Imperial prime minister, upon the question being closely put to him near two months after, by some of the foreign ministers, denied it in the strongest and most solemn terms. 
It may be a matter of doubt, whether the insidious artifices of the court of Berlin in exciting the troubles, or the delusive appearance of friendship shown by that of Vienna, were in the event more destructive to the unfortunate Polanders. It has been confidently asserted, that the former of these powers, with a premeditated design to bring matter to something near their present crisis, first urged the Diffidents, by repeated assurances of effectual support, to embark hastily in the design of recovering their ancient rights and privileges, and then encouraged the governing part of the nation to persevere in their oppressions, by private assurances to the most bigotted, and some of the most powerful members of the diet, that he would take no active part in their favour; until by these indirect means the whole kingdom was set in a flame. The enormity of such a conduct [[?]] it to be hoped, as well for the sake of royalty as of human nature, that the

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