CHAPTER XVII. WAR IN POLAND. ARGUMENT. Immense extent of Poland in former times-Causes of its continual Disasters-It has retained the Pastoral and Independent Character unmixed-Representative system arose from the Councils of the Church-No intermixture of Foreign Customs in Poland-Its Society differently constructed from any in Europe-They still retain the Taste and Habits of the Nomade TribesTheir early and indomitable Democratic Spirit-The Clergy formed a different Body from any in Europe-Nobility never engaged in any Profession or Trade, which all fell into the hands of the Jews-Liberty and Equality the early Passion of the People-No Hereditary Offices admitted in the Nobility-Crown ultimately became Elective-General Assemblies of the People-The Liberum Veto-Representative system never thoroughly Established-Pledges universally exacted from the Deputies: and they were regularly called to account for their Conduct-Great increase of the Democratic Power at the close of the Eighteenth Century-Forces of the Republic-Their long and desperate Wars with the Asiatic Tribes-Their weakness early suggested the idea of Dismemberment to the adjoining States-Great Exploits of John Sobieski-His Prophetic anticipation of the Partition of Poland from its Democratic Divisions— With him the Polish Power was extinguished-Excessive Democratic Strife after his Death-Increasing Weakness and Anarchy of the Republic; which made their Partition in 1772 easy-When too late, they abandon their ruinous Democratic Privileges-Commencement of their last Struggle-They take up Arms from despair, and elect Kosciusko as a Leader-He Defeats the Russians at Raslawice-Warsaw is taken by the Insurgents-Poles in the Russian Army disbanded-Great exertions of Kosciusko-Want of a large Regular Force proved fatal to him-Russians and Prussians advance against Warsaw, but are compelled to raise the Siege-Suwarrow defeats one of their Corps, and Kosciusko is routed and made Prisoner at Maciowice-Patriots shut themselves up in Warsaw-Storming of Praga and Warsaw by Suwarrow-Atrocious massacre by the Russians-Great sensation produced by the Fall of Warsaw in Europe-Poland fell the victim of Democratic madness and oppression-Striking contrast afforded by the steady growth of Russia-Subsequent punishment of the partitionary Powers-Gallant spirit of the exiled Polish bands-Comparison of Polish and English history-Disastrous Effect of the Polish War on the Coalition against France. XVII. PROVIDENCE has so interwoven human affairs, CHAP. that when we wish to retrace the revolutions of a people, and to investigate the causes of their grandeur 1794. or misfortune, we are insensibly conducted step by XVII. CHAP. step to their cradle. The slightest consideration of the History of Poland must be sufficient to prove, that 1794. that great nation, always combating, often victorious, but never securing its conquests, has from the earliest 1 Salvandy, times been on the decline. It emerged from the shock which overthrew the Roman Empire, valiant, powerful, and extensive; from that hour it has invariably drooped, until at length it became the victim of its ancient provinces. i. 18. Immense extent of Poland in former times. Causes of its continued The kingdom of Poland formerly extended from the Borysthenes to the Danube, and from the Euxine to the Baltic. The Sarmatia of the ancients, it embraced within its bosom the original seat of those nations which subverted the Roman Empire; Prussia, Moravia, Bohemia, Hungary, the Ukraine, Courland, Livonia, are all fragments of its mighty dominion. The Goths, who appeared as suppliants on the Danube, and were ferried across by Roman hands never to recede; the Huns, who under Attila spread desolation through the empire; the Sclavonians, who overspread the greater part of Europe, emerged from its vast and uncultivated plains. But its subsequent progress has but ill corresponded to such a commencement: while, in all other states, liberty, riches, power, and glory, have advanced with equal steps, and the victories of one age have contributed to the advancement of that which succeeded it; in Poland, alone, the greatest triumphs have been immediately succeeded by the greatest reverses; the establishment of its internal freedom has led to nothing but external disaster, and the deliverer of Europe in one age was in the next swept from the book of nations. This extraordinary history has all arisen from one Disasters. cause,-that Poland has retained, till a very recent period, the independence and equality of savage life. It has neither been subjugated by more polished, nor itself vanquished more civilized states. The equality and valour of the pastoral character have, in their native plains, remained unchanged during fifteen hundred years, neither grafted on the stock of urban liberty, nor moulded by the institutions of civilized society. Poland shows what in its original state was the equality of pastoral life: Neither the resistance, nor the tastes, nor the intelligence, nor the blood of vanquished nations, have altered in its inhabitants the inclinations and passions of the savage character. We may see in its history what would have been the fate of all the Northern nations, if their fierce and unbending temper had not been tempered by the blood, and moulded by the institutions of a more advanced civilisation; and in the anarchy of its diets, what would have been the representative system, had the dream of Montesquieu been well-founded, that it was found in the woods.1 СНАР. XVII. 1794. 1 Salv. i. 29. tained the Character The shepherds who wandered in the plains of Sarmatia were, like all other pastoral tribes, inflamed by It has rethe strongest passion for that savage freedom, which Pastoral and consists in leading a life exempt from all control-in independent wandering at will over boundless plains, resting where unmixed. they chose, and departing when they wished. In their incursions into the Roman provinces they collected immense troops of captives, who were compelled to perform the works of drudgery, in which their masters disdained to engage; to attend the cattle, drive the waggons, and make the arms. Their imperious lords, acknowledging no superior themselves, knew no restraint in the treatment of their inferiors. With the same energy they asserted that tyranny over that unhappy race, with which they would have resisted any attempt to encroach on their own independence. Such CHAP. as Poland then was, it has ever since continued,-a race of jealous freemen, and iron-bound slaves; a wild 1794. democracy ruling a captive people. Representa arose from ian Councils. It is a mistake to suppose that the representative tive System system was found in the woods. What was found the Christ- there was not any thing resembling parliaments, but Polish equality. The pastoral nations of the North, equally with the citizens of the Republics of antiquity, had no idea of the exercise of the rights of freemen, but by the concourse of all the citizens. Of course this privilege could only be exercised by a small number of them when the state became populous, and hence the narrow base on which with them the fabric of liberty was framed. The assemblies of the Champsde-Mai, accordingly, equally with the early convocations of the Normans in England, were attended by all the freemen who held of the king; and sixty thousand Norman horsemen assembled at Winchester, to deliberate with the conqueror concerning the vanquished kingdom. This was the original system in all the European states, and this is what the Polish diet has always continued. It was the Christian Church, the parent of so many lofty doctrines and new ideas, which had the glory of offering to the world, amidst the wreck of ancient institutions, the model of a form of government, which gives to all interests the right of suffrage, by establishing a system which may embrace the remotest interests; which preserves the energy, and avoids the principal evils of democracy; which maintains the Tribune, and shuns the strife of the Forum. The Christian councils were the first example of representative assemblies; there were united the whole Roman world; there a priesthood, which 1 Thierry, ii. 286. embraced the civilized earth, assembled by means of delegates to deliberate on the affairs of the Universal Church. When Europe revived, it adopted the same model. Every nation, by degrees, borrowed the customs of the Church, then the sole depository of the traditions of civilisation. It was the religion of the vanquished people; it was the clergy who instructed them in this admirable system, which flourished in the councils of Nice, Sardis, and Byzantium, centuries before it was heard of in the Western World, and which did not arise in the woods of Germany, but in the catacombs of Rome during the sufferings of the primitive Church.1 CHAP. XVII. 1794. 1 Salv. i. 107, 108. mixture of Customs in Poland. Vienna was the frontier station of the Roman empire. It never extended into the Sarmatian wilds, and hence the chief cause of the continued calamities of their descendants. It was the infusion of the free spirit of the Scythian tribes into the decaying provinces of the Roman empire, and the union of barbaric energy with antiquated civilisation, which produced the glories of modern Europe. In Poland alone, sa- No intervage independence remained unmoulded by foreign ad- Foreign mixture, and the customs of the earliest ages continued unchanged down to the partition of the monarchy. After representative assemblies had been established for centuries in Germany, France, and England, the Poles adhered to the ancient custom of summoning every free man to discuss sword in hand the affairs of the Republic. An hundred thousand horsemen met in the field of Volo, near Warsaw, to deliberate on public affairs, and the distractions of these stormy diets weakened the nation even more than the attacks of its foreign enemies. Among them was established, to their sorrow, the real system which was Rulh. i. 10, invented in the woods.2 Salv. i. 109. 14. |