XVII.

CHAP. spirit of freedom; it dignifies and hallows all that it inspires, and, even amidst the ruins which it has occasioned, exalts the human soul!

1794.

56.

with Eng

The history of England has illustrated the beneficial Comparison effects which have resulted to its character and institutions of Polish from the Norman Conquest. In the severe suffering which lish history. followed that great event, in the anguish of generations, in the forcible intermixture of the races of the victor and vanquished, were laid the deep and firm foundations of English freedom. In the checkered and disastrous history of Poland may be traced the consequences of an opposite, and, at first sight, more fortunate destiny-of national independence uninterruptedly maintained, and purity of race unceasingly preserved. The first, in the school of early adversity, were taught the habits and learned the wisdom necessary for the guidance of maturer years; the second, like the spoiled child whose wishes had never been coerced, nor its passions restrained, at last acquired on the brink of the grave, prematurely induced by excessive indulgence, that experience which should have been gained in earlier years. It is through this terrible but necessary ordeal that Poland is now passing; and the experience of ages would indeed be lost, if we did not discern in its present suffering the discipline necessary for future happiness, and, in the extremity of temporary disaster, the severe training for ultimate improvement.

57.

Just retri

bution on

the partitioning

powers.

The partition of Poland, and scandalous conduct of the states who reaped the fruit of injustice in its fall, has been the frequent subject of just indignation and eloquent complaint from the European historians; but the connexion between that calamitous event and the subsequent disasters of the partitioning powers, has not hitherto met with due attention. Yet nothing can be clearer than that it was this iniquitous measure which brought all the misfortunes that followed upon the European monarchiesthat it was it which opened the gates of Germany to French ambition, and brought Napoleon with his terrible

legions to Vienna, Berlin, and the Kremlin.

the campaigns of 1793 and 1794 are studied, the more clearly does it appear that it was the prospect of obtaining a share in the partition of Poland which paralysed the Allied arms, which intercepted or turned aside the legions which might have overthrown the Jacobin rule, and created that jealousy and division amongst their rulers, which, more even than the energy of the Republicans, contributed to the uniform and astonishing success of the latter. Had the redoubtable bands of Catherine been added to the armies of Prussia in the plains of Champagne in 1792, or to those of Austria and Great Britain in the fields of Flanders in 1793, not a doubt can remain that the revolutionary party would have been overcome, and a constitutional monarchy established in France, with the entire concurrence of three-fourths of all the respectable classes in the kingdom, and to the infinite present and future blessing of its whole inhabitants. Even in 1794, by a cordial co-operation of the Prussian and Austrian forces after the fall of Landrecies, the whole barrier fortresses erected by the genius of Vauban might have been captured, and the Revolution, thrown back upon its own resources, been permanently prevented from proving dangerous to the liberties of Europe. What, then, paralysed the Allied armies in the midst of such a career of success, and caused the campaign to close under circumstances of such general disaster? The prospect of partitioning Poland, which first retained the Prussian battalions, during the crisis of the campaign, in sullen inactivity on the Rhine, and then led to the precipitate and indignant abandonment of Flanders by the Austrian forces.

XVII.

1794.

sequent

The subsequent fate of the partitioning powers is a 58. striking instance of that moral retribution which, sooner Their subor later, in nations as well as individuals, attends a punishment. flagrant act of injustice. To effect the destruction of Poland, Prussia paralysed her armies on the Rhine, and threw on Austria and Britain the whole weight of the

XVII.

1794.

contest with Republican France. She thereby permitted
the growth of its military power, and the battle of Jena,
the treaty of Tilsit, and six years of bondage, were the
consequence. Suwarroff entered Warsaw when its spires
were yet gleaming with the fires of Praga, and when the
Vistula ran red with Polish blood; and, before twenty
years had expired, the Poles revenged on the Moskwa
that inhuman massacre, and the sack of Warsaw was
forgotten in the conflagration of Moscow. Austria with-
drew from Flanders to join in the deed of iniquity, and
secure in Gallicia the fruits of injustice; and twice did
the French guards in consequence pass in triumph through
the walls of Vienna. The connexion between this great
and guilty act and the subsequent disasters of the
spoliating powers, therefore, is direct and evident; and
history would be worse than useless if it did not signalise
that memorable instance of just retribution for the eternal
warning and instruction of mankind. Already has been
realised, in part at least, the anticipation of the poet :-

"Yes! thy proud lords, unpitied land! shall see
That man hath yet a soul, and dare be free!
A little while, along thy saddening plains,

The starless night of desolation reigns:

Truth shall restore the light by nature given,

And, like Prometheus, bring the fire of heaven.
Prone to the dust Oppression shall be hurl'd,
Her name, her nature, wither'd from the world!"*

* Pleasures of Hope.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CAMPAIGN OF 1795.

XVIII.

1795.

1.

between

Prussia.

THE great success which in every quarter had signalised the conclusion of the campaign of 1794, led, early in the CHAP following year, to the dissolution of the confederacy against the French Republic. The conquest of Holland determined the wavering policy of Prussia. Early in January con- Peace ferences were publicly opened at Bâle, and before the end France and of the month the preliminaries were signed. The public Jan. 22. articles of this treaty bound the King of Prussia to live on friendly terms with the Republic, and not furnish succour to its enemies to concede to France the undisturbed enjoyment of its conquests on the left bank of the Rhine, leaving the equivalent to be given to Prussia to ulterior arrangement; while, on the other hand, the French government engaged to withdraw its troops from the Prussian possessions on the right bank, and not treat as enemies the states of the Empire in which Prussia took an interest. By the secret articles, "the King of Prussia engaged not to undertake any hostile enterprise against Holland, or any country occupied by the French troops; an indemnity was stipulated for Prussia, in the event of France extending her frontier to the Rhine; the Republic promised not to carry hostilities in the Empire beyond a 1 Hard. iii. fixed line; and, in case of the Rhine being permanently 144-146. fixed on as the boundary of France, and including the vi. 45. states of Deux-Ponts,1 the Republic engaged to undertake

Martens,

CHAP.
XVIII.

1795. 2

Effects of

the successes of France in

ing campaign.

a debt of 1,500,000 rix-dollars, due to Prussia by their potentate.

There was, in truth, no present interest at variance between these powers, and the treaty contained little more of importance than a recognition of the Republic the preced by Frederick - William. But there never was a step more ultimately ruinous taken by a nation. The conquest of Holland, which overturned the balance of power, and exposed Prussia, uncovered, to the attacks of France, should have been the signal for a sincere coalition, such as that which had coerced the ambition of Louis XIV., and subsequently overturned the power of Napoleon. What a succession of disasters would such a decided conduct in all probability have prevented! What long and disastrous wars, what a prodigious effusion of human blood, what unheard-of efforts did it require for Prussia to regain in 1813 the position which she occupied in 1795! But these events were buried in the womb of fate; no one then anticipated the coming disasters; and the Prussian ministers deemed themselves fortunate in escaping from a war in which no real interest of the monarchy seemed to be at stake. They concluded peace 1 Jom. vii. accordingly; they left Austria to contend single-handed with the power of France; and the battle of Jena and treaty of Tilsit were the consequence.1*

6. Th. vii.

202.

* The British historian need not hesitate to express this opinion, since it is not only agreeable to that of all the German annalists, but expressly admitted by the able and candid Prussian statesman who concluded with Barthelemy, on the part of the Directory, that unhappy pacification. "The King of Prussia," says Prince Hardenberg, "tired of warlike operations, rudely awakened from his dreams on the plains of Champagne, and deeming a counter-revolution in France impossible, said to his ministers: Arrange matters as you like, provided you extricate me from the war with France."" By signing the treaty of Bâle, he abandoned the House of Orange, sacrificed Holland, laid open the Empire to French invasion, and prepared the ruin of the ancient Germanic constitution. Despising the lessons of history, that prince forgot that no sooner was the independence of Holland menaced, in the end of the seventeenth century, than a league of all the sovereigns of Europe was formed to restrain the ambition of Louis XIV.; while at this time the invasion of the same country, effected under the Republican banners, led to a dissolution of the coalition of Kings against the French Revolution. From that moment every throne was stript of the magic halo which heretofore had surrounded it.