Reign of George III. (continued.) page 10

drove them over the Danube, and seized some of their most fertile provinces. To complete their ruin, they, aided by England, attacked and destroyed their fleet in the Mediterranean.

When Louis XV. heard of the union to divide Poland, he exclaimed, "This would not have been, had Choiseul still been here." But England, with a blindness inconceivable had not only not seen the effect of allowing Russia and her greedy allies to break up Poland, and thus expose Turkey, and, through it, the Mediterranean, but committed the same error as she did in our day at Navarino: she had enabled Russia to annihilate the Turkish fleet. By English aid, the very last that should have contributed to such an end, the Russian flag floated in the Mediterranean; and, under its auspices, all the robber tribes of Greece and her islands - Maniotes, Candiotes, Samiotes, Ragusans, Montenegrins, Dalmatians, and all the pirates of Italian as well as Grecian ports - swarmed forth in their brigantines and misticos, attacking and plundering every merchant vessel that appeared. The commerce of every maritime country of Europe in the Mediterranean was at an end, of England as well as the rest; and it was to enable our fleet to reduce the elements of mischief which we had raised, by promoting the lawless schemes of Russia on Poland and Turkey, that our imbecile ministers had to call for fresh taxes and fresh ships.

The treaty betwixt Russia, Prussia, and Austria for the first division of Poland was signed at Petersburg on the 5th August, 1772. The three robber powers now promised to rest satisfied with all their booty; to respect the rights and remaining territories of Poland - words hollow and worthless as they who used them. The invaders divided at this time about one-third of Poland betwixt them. Prussia appropriated the whole of Pomerelia, part of Great Poland, the bishopric of Warmia, and the palatinates of Marienburg and Culm; with complete command of the lower part of the Vistula. The whole of this territory did not exceed eight hundred square miles, but it was a territory of vast importance to Prussia, as it united Pomerania with the rest of that kingdom. Russia and Austria acquired immensely more in extent. Russia took nearly the whole of Lithuania, with the vast country betwixt the rivers Dwina and Dneister. Austria secured the country along the left bank of the Vistula from Vielicza to the confluence of the Vistula and the Viroz. But Russia had Galicia, the palatinate of Belz, and a part of Volhynia.

Thus began the absorption by these three powers of that vast country, which, had it been maintained in its integrity, would have curbed the gigantic ambition of Russia, and nipped in the bud those aggressions on Turkey which threaten the peace, and have demanded torrents of the blood of Western Europe already. But no one, not even Chatham, then seemed to have the least idea of the vast importance of this violation of the laws of nations. From that moment the three allied powers dictated, by their armies, to Poland; compelled its diet to subscribe to this infamous amputation of the limbs of their country; and dispersed the patriots, as exiles, into all countries, some of whom, by a remarkable Nemesis, became the ardent assailants of our claims in the American colonies under general Washington.

To complete this subject, we may pursue the aggressive progress of Russia a little beyond the present moment. Russia, at the intercession of Prussia and Austria, listened to the proposals of Turkey for peace. A congress was agreed to be held at Foczani, in Wallachia, in July; there came Gregory Orloff, as the representative of Catherine, attended by a retinue of one hundred and sixty domestics in splendid liveries, and by troops of hussars in equally splendid uniforms; his own costume was one blaze of jewels and orders, and on his breast he wore a portrait of his royal mistress set in diamonds; but his demands were so extravagant, and his demeanour so haughty and dictatorial, that the Turks, anxious as they were for peace, indignantly rejected his propositions, and the congress broke up. Orloff, on his return to St. Petersburg, found himself supplanted in the royal favour by the still more showy Potemkin; and a new attempt at negotiation was made betwixt general Romanzoff and the grand vizier at Bucharest, in March, 1773. This was equally in vain; the Russians had meantime agreed with the Tartars for the virtual sovereignty of the Crimea, and they again crossed the Danube and renewed hostilities. The Russians, however, were thoroughly beaten by the Turks, and glad to retreat across the Danube in July, with the loss of ten thousand men. This severe check induced them to listen to fresh terms of peace, and the treaty of Kainardji took place in July, 1774. By this, notwithstanding their late defeats, the Russians obtained most advantageous terms; they obtained the Crimea, under pretence of its being considered an independent state under its khans; Kilburn, Kerche, Jenickala, and the whole region betwixt the Bug and Dnieper were ceded to them. Russia kept Taganrok and Asoph, the two best ports on the Black Sea; and her merchant vessels had free passage of the Dardanelles, with all the privileges of the most favoured nations. Besides these, Russia had established connections with the Greeks in Jassy and Bucharest, which opened the future way for her into Wallachia and Moldavia.