a diet legally assembled might co-operate with their imperial majesties
and the King of Prussia in re-establishing tranquillity, and at the same
time ratify, by public acts, the titles, pretensions, and claims of the
three powers; and the partition agreed upon and effected. The diet
met, and although for a long time they opposed the dismemberment of the
country, yet they were overcome by large presents and larger promises.
The king was more firm, but he was menaced with deposition, his family
with ruin, and his capital with pillage, and he signed the fatal
instrument. The territory taken and divided among them was almost the
third part of Poland, and it comprised some of the richest provinces in
the kingdom. Thus to Russia was assigned the greater part of Lithuania,
with all the vast country between the livers Dwina and Dneister; to
Prussia the whole of Pomeralia, part of Great Poland, the bishopric of
Warmia, and the palatinates of Marienberg and Culm, with the complete
command of the lower part of the Vistula; and to Austria the country
along the left bank of the Vistula, from Vielicza down to the confluence
of the river Viroz, the whole of the country called Red Russia, the
palatinate of Belz, and a portion of the province of Volhynia. But even
this did not satisfy the spoliators. The treaty was scarcely signed when
Frederick extended the limits of his acquisitions in the neighbourhood
of Thorn, and to the east of the Devenza, while Austria seized on
Casimir, part of the palatinate of Lublin, and some lands lying on the
right bank of the Bog. Were not these three powers actuated by a
spirit of revenge and envy, as well as by a spirit of cupidity, in this
spoliation of Poland? Prussia was formerly in a state of vassalage to
that country; Russia once saw its capital and throne possessed by
Poles; and Austria was indebted to a sovereign of this country for
the preservation of its metropolis, if not for its very existence.
Stanislaus could scarcely be persuaded that this dismemberment was
intended to be perpetual; and when he was convinced of it, he addressed
prayers and protests to France, Spain, and England, and to all the
powers of Europe. These prayers and protests were useless; and yet it
was the wisdom of the powers to vindicate his cause. Professor Heeren
remarks:--"What were the consequences to Poland, in comparison with
those which threatened the political system of Europe? The potentates
themselves had begun its