rtition (1772), and the division of the unhappy country was forced on
by Austria and Prussia. In the case of the second partition in 1793, she
did show herself to be very unscrupulous. Her opposition to the reform
of the Polish government was plainly due to a wish to preserve an excuse
for further spoliation, but her conduct was less cruel and base than
that of Prussia.

Catherine had adhered to her husband's policy of a Prussian alliance.
While Frederick the Great lived she was impressed by his ability. But
the Prussian alliance became hateful to her, and her later
correspondence with Grimm overflows with contempt of his successor
Frederick William II., who is always spoken of by her as "Brother Gu."
Her exasperation with the affectations of the Prussian king was
unquestionably increased by her discovery that he would not be induced
to apply himself to a crusade against the French Revolution, which by
employing all his forces would have left Russia free to annex the whole
of what remained of Poland. But at least she did not enter into a solemn
engagement to defend the Poles who were engaged in reforming their
constitution, and then throw them over in order to share in the plunder
of their country.

Catherine's Turkish policy was at first marked by a certain grandiosity.
When the Turks declared war in 1768 in order to support Poland, which
they looked upon as a necessary buffer state, she retaliated by the
great Greek scheme. For a time it was a pet idea with her to revive the
Greek empire, and to plant the cross, with the double-headed Russian
eagle, at Constantinople. She formed a corps of Greek cadets, caused her
younger grandson to be christened Constantine, and began the policy of
presenting Russia to the Christian subjects of the Porte as their
deliverer. In pursuit of this heroic enterprise, which excited the loud
admiration of Voltaire, she sent a fleet under Alexis Orlov into the
Mediterranean in 1770. Orlov tempted the Greeks of the Morea to take up
arms, and then left them in the lurch. When Catherine found herself
opposed by the policy of France and England, and threatened by the
jealousy of Prussia and Austria, she dropped the Greek design, observing
to Voltaire that the descendants of the Spartans were much degenerated.
The introduction into the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji of 1774 of a clause
by which the Porte guaranteed the rights of its Christian subjects, and
of another-giving Russia the right to interf