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42] Annual Register
by all the other high powers who were engaged with her in the cause of the Dissidents. Such is the faith and security of treaties.
The protestant city of Thorn, found as little security in the King of Prussia's declaration, as that of Dantzick. The fame solemn mockery of reason and justice, was however preserved upon this occasion, which had been displayed upon the other ; and the delicacy was still to be observed of not taking the city by force, at the same time that their territories and revenues were seized upon, custom and excise offices erected at their gates, and heavy gabelles, (which would have amounted to prohibitions, if they had been laid upon any thing but the necessaries of life) levied upon every article that entered them. This blockaded and plundered they were declared free ; but at the same time, with the peculiar felicity which this prince has of making nice distinctions, they were summoned to do homage for all the lands they possessed without the walls. In these circumstances, with force and famine to encounter, the magistrates and citizens behaved with wonderful resolution and firmness. They returned for answer, that they had already paid homage and sworn allegiance to their legal sovereign, and that they could enither renounce their allegiance nor break their oaths, upon any account or consideration whatsoever. They have still preserved in this laudable resolution.
In other respects, this prince seemed as little bound by the terms of his own declaration, as in what related to the cities of Dantzick and Thorn. His troops extended themselves on every side in Great Poland, where they exerted the fame rapine, and spread the fame desolation, which they had done before the seizure of equivalents. The fertile and extensive province of Cujavia, has however received such particular marks of attention, that it is not doubted, but that, at least, will be annexed to his dominions, as an equivalent for some other claims, which were not at first recollected.
Of all the extraordinary acts of the three partitioning powers, none seem more so, or are perhaps more incomprehensible, than their conduct with respect to the convocation of a diet. They urge, in the manifesto, with the most pressing earnestness, the whole Polish nation to lay aside their animosities, in order that a diet might be legally assembled, one of the principal avowed objects of which, was to ratify those arrangements that they had already decreed, and to acknowledge their right in the equivalents which they had seized. Upon finding that the king and the senate did not enter into this measure with the alacrity which they wished, they lose all appearance of temper, and forgetful of the respect, renew the demand in terms, and enforce it with menaces, which were equally unworthy of both.
The terrified kind and senate, immediately comply with their arbitrary mandates, and the great council of the nation is accordingly summoned upon the shortest notice, to go through those forms, which must indispensably precede the assembling of the diet. Every thing now taking place according to their own desires, they at once change their conduct, and of their own motion

For the YEAR 1772. [43
motion cut off the possibility of that legal meeting of the grand council and representatives of the nation, which they seemed so eager to procure. They first forbid the senators of those provinces which they had seized to attend the senates confilium, and afterwards prevent the dirtiness from electing nuncio's to represent them at the diet. Thus every security or benefit they intended to derive from the obtaining of a legal sanction to their usurpations, by the consent or confirmation of a diet, is totally frustrated by themselves, as no act of that assembly can be valid, unless the whole body of the nobility are represented in it.
The fame contempt of even the forms of legality is observed in the disposition of the troops. The city of Warsaw and its environs, is occupied by little less than an army; and is surrounded with still greater bodies of the troops of different nations ; though by the laws of Poland, their own national army is so far from being admitted to approach the place where the diet is assembled, that it must withdraw from the interior provinces, even previous to the elections, so that those, as well as that assembly, may be entirely free and unawed. Yet all the representations that have been made to the three powers, for the withdrawing of their troops, even from the capital and its neighbourhood, have been ineffectual.
The King of Prussia, as usual, goes beyond his compeers upon this occasion. After threatening the kingdom with general destruction, if a diet was not immediately assembled, he takes every possible measure to prevent its having any effect if it was. To effect this purpose, every engine of intrigue, artifice, corruption, and power is made use of; and at length, through the instrumentality of a Prince Anthony Sulkowski, a meeting of some of the nobility of Great Poland was procured at Lissa, where, under the name of a council, they have set up a kind of counter diet, and have passed several resolutions, in which they assume a kind of independency, and for the present, at least, seem to hold themselves distinct from the republic. As soon as this assembly was convened, the Prussian General Lessow, commanded the provinces of Great Poland, under pain of military execution, to fend deputies to this council where he had proposals to make to them from his matter. Thus, while at his own desire, a general and legal meeting of the states of the kingdom are under orders of assembling, to debate upon matters which concern its existence, he uses artifice and power to procure a spurious and illegal meeting, to counteract the proceedings and decrees of the other, or to found a presence for rendering them invalid if not suited entirely to his views ; deputies are then compelled by force to attend this pretended council, with whom a king descends to treat publicly, and refers claims to them, which relate to the nation at large.
In this situation, it can scarcely be expected, that there will be even the shadow of a diet at Warsaw. The great senators have already experienced, in the frozen wilds of Siberia, or in the gloom of a dungeon, the danger of holding an opinion, or of giving a vote, when surrounded by Ruffian troops. Some measures were, however, to be kept, and some forms observed, in the year