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26] ANNUAL REGISTER 
 
the charge is not founded in truth. But if it should be otherwise; even this crooked system of policy, could have succeeded only in part, if the false lights hung out by Austria, operating upon the pre-conceived opinion formed of her disposition and political views, had not encouraged the Poles to that ruinous and unavailing perseverance and obstinacy, which without a due attention to the feafon, or waiting for time or opportunity, first precipitated Russia into extremities, which she probably had neither foreseen nor intended, and having covered their country with a deluge of blood, has terminated in its final destruction. 
   Enclosed, as the Confederates were at the end of preceding year, by the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian armies; and abandoned, as they seemed to be, by their only allies, who were negociating a peace upon such unequal terms, as afforded but little hopes of their being much considered, it was naturally to be expected that their opposition would not have been entirely at an end, and that the leaders would either have obtained the best terms they could from Russia, or have retired into other countries, in hopes of some happy concurrence of circumstances, which might have restored tranquillity and security to their own. Their conduct, however, was directly the reverse; and in this hopeless state of their affairs, they meditated new enterprizes, and carried on the fame ruinous kind of war, which had so long desolated the country. 
      Feb. 2d. In the beginning of the year, they had the seeming good fortune to surprize the citadel of Cracow, which they had already rendered remarkable by the siege which they had sustained in it, in the beginning of these troubles. About the same time, they had various skirmishes with the Russians, and the Polish crown troops, in some of which they acted with a good deal of vigour; but all these efforts only served to weaken themselves irretrievably, by the continued slaughter of the nobility, and to compleat entirely the ruin of the country. The citadel of Cracow, Tyniec, Czenstochaw, and most of their other fortresses, were soon after besieged by the Russians; some of these, particularly the castle of Cracow, and the fortress of Tyniec, made a most obstinate defence, and held out a surprizing length of time, the garrisons having endured unparalleled hardships before they surrendered. 
   In the beginning of May, Marshal Zaremba, seeing that their affairs grew every day more hopeless, sent an officer of distinction to the king and the ministry at Warsaw, to make an offer of surrender, for himself and his party, which consisted of about two thousand men; but at the same time desired to be informed to whom he should surrender; whether to the republic, or to the Russians and Prussians, by whom they were surrounded. The answer was truly laconic: he was told, That as he had not consulted them in forming the confederacy, they had no advice to give him in the present exigence. There seems to be but little doubt, that this answer was dictated by the Russian minister, who probably did not now think it proper, that the king should exercise any act of sovereignty, or that a door should be opened for an intercourse, and communion
For the YEAR 1772.    [27
munion of interests, between him and the Confederates; as it can fearcely be supposed that in the present situation of affairs, he would if left to himself, have acted so cruelly, and so contrary to his interests, as to cut off at once the greater part of the nation from all hopes of peace and accommodation. 
   Marshal Zaremba, now proposed his terms where the power was lodged for receiving them. He was treated with great distinction by the Russian commander in chief, with whom he entered Warsaw, in a manner that carried more the air of a triumphant general, than that of a rebel or fugitive. The conditions were very moderate; he and his general officers bound themselves by oath to enter into no other confederacy, and agreed to reside at Warsaw till a pacification took place; the inferior officers, upon giving security for their future behaviour, were permitted to retire to their houses in the country, and such of the common men, as had not escaped to the other confederacies, were incorporated with the Russian or Polish troops. The king had the mortification, to have one of his own subjects, whose direct submission to himself he had a few days before refused, now introduced to him upon more equal terms, by a Russian officer, under the sanction of a Russian treaty. 
   Tyniec, and the castle of Cracow, still held out, and were not taken till the latter end of June, or beginning of July. In the mean time, a body of Austrians had joined the Ruffians to carry on the siege of the first; the garrison being reduced to the utmost extremity, and preferring any change of condition, to that of a submission to their natural and inveterate enemies, they entered into a private treaty with the Austrians, and permitted them to take possession of the fortress, without the knowledge or consent of the Russians. 
   The Russian officers, who had too long made their own will the supreme law in every transaction with the Poles, could ill brook an instance, which shewed that it was not equally omnipotent with other nations, and the loss of a place which they considered as their own. The matter had like to become serious; and they still made a shew of carrying on the siege, though the Austrains were now the defenders of the place. Whether it was, that the officers on either side were not fully apprized of the designs of their respective courts, and the nature of the connection between them, or that natural antipathy and contempt, were superior to any bands that could unite these ill-paired allies, however it was, frequent bickerings passed between them about this time: and it was as much as the two courts could do, to prevent their animosity from shewing itself in a dangerous manner. 
   The Austrian having 
seized the royal falt-  June 9th. 
mines at Wielickza, Bochinia, and some other places, which were a principal source of the king's private revenue, and the Prussians having cut him off from the remainder of it, which principally arose from the duties in Royal Prussia, the wretched monarch found himself in the hands of his pretended and officious friends, bereft of all the means of subsistence. The Austrians did not yet, however, compel the crown officers and magistracy

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-11 08:10:37 f needs to be an "s" in a lot of words, indents to be removed and truncated words to be completed ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-21 14:48:42 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-21 16:07:32 Shewing is the old way of spelling "showing" so I kept it in