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IX.

1792.

63.

and parti

Poland, the destined theatre of glorious achievements, CHAP. was, at the commencement of the French Revolution, groaning under the weight of foreign oppression. This heroic country, long the bulwark of Christendom against Poland, its the Turks, the deliverer of Germany under John Sobi- divisions eski, the ancient conqueror of Russia, had been the victim tions. of the insane democratic passions of its people, and an atrocious conspiracy of the neighbouring kings. The flatness of its surface, the want of fortified towns, and the weakness incident to an elective monarchy and turbulent democracy, had rendered all the valour of the people unavailing, and the greater part of its dominions had been reft from it by its ambitious neighbours at the disastrous epoch of 1772. In 1792, the neighbouring sovereigns found a new pretence for renewing their spoliations. Stanislaus Augustus, the last nominal king, had granted a constitution to his subjects, better adapted than could have been hoped for to their peculiar situation. By it, the crown was declared elective, but the dynasty hereditary-the Princess of Saxony was proclaimed heiress of the throne after the demise of the king. Legislative measures and decrees were to be proposed by the crown, and sanctioned by the Chambers of Lords and Commons. The nobles abandoned their privilege of engrossing every employment under government; and, to provide for the gradual elevation of the people, the king was obliged, during the sitting of each diet, to ennoble thirty of the bourgeois class. The Catholic religion was declared the established faith. This constitution was proclaimed amidst the universal acclamations of the people; and new life, it was fondly imagined, had been infused into the ancient monarchy, from the intermixture of popular vigour. But these transports were of short duration. Stanislaus Augustus, however enlightened in framing a1 Ann. Reg. constitution, was ill qualified to maintain it. The people, xxxii. 205. disunited for centuries, were incapable of any measures 168, 172. for their common defence. The jealousy of the Empress 178. Catherine was awakened by the prospect of Poland again

Lac. viii.

Burke, vi.

IX.

CHAP. emerging into political vigour, and her fears by the proximity of revolutionary principles to her hereditary 1792. states. A new treaty of partition was signed between

64.

tary charac

Poles.

the three adjoining powers, and the conqueror of Ismael was called from the Turkish war, to give the last blow to the ancient defenders of the Christian faith.

Though deprived of the weight arising from unity of Heroic mili- empire, the native valour of the Poles destined them to ter of the perform an important part on the theatre of Europe. Napoleon has characterised them as the people who most rapidly become soldiers; and their ardent patriotism rendered them the ready supporters of any power which held out the prospect of restoring the national independence. The valour of the Polish legions made them distinguished in the wars of Italy and Spain; they followed the French standards to Smolensko and Moscow, and maintained an unshaken fidelity to them during all the disasters of the subsequent retreat. Though cruelly abandoned by Napoleon in the commencement of the Russian campaign, they adhered to his fortunes through all the subsequent changes; and, amidst the general defection of Europe, kept their faith inviolate on the field of Leipsic.

65.

Sweden.

Sweden was too remote from the scene of European conflict to have much weight in the political scale. Secure in a distant and almost inaccessible situation, blessed with a hardy, intrepid, and honest peasantry, she had nothing to dread but from the insatiable progress of Russian ambition. She had recently, however, concluded a glorious war with her powerful neighbour; her arms, in alliance with those of Turkey, had taken the Imperial forces by surprise; and Gustavus, extricating himself by a desperate exertion of valour from a perilous situation, had destroyed the Russian fleet, and gained a great victory, so near St Petersburg that the sound of the cannon was heard in the palace of the Empress. But, such is the weight of Muscovite power, that its enemies are always glad to purchase peace, even in the moments

IX.

1792.

of their greatest success. Catherine hastened to get quit CHAP. of the Swedish war, by offering advantageous terms to her courageous rival, and flattered his chivalrous feelings into accepting them, by representing that the efforts of all sovereigns should now be directed towards resisting 1 Lac. viii. the progress of the French Revolution, and that he alone 167. was worthy to head the enterprise.1

dominions.

2

Placed on the other extremity of the Russian dominions, 66. the forces of Turkey were still less capable of affecting the Ottoman balance of the European states. Formidable during the period of its vigour and rise, the Ottoman power, like that of all barbarous nations, had rapidly and irrecoverably declined, after the zenith of its greatness had been attained. It was defended chiefly by the desert and inaccessible nature of its frontiers, the result of the incessant and grievous oppression of its government, and by the jealousies of the European powers, who never failed to interfere when the danger became imminent to its independent existence. Its cavalry, brave, skilful, and admirably mounted, was the most formidable in the world;2 375. 2 Nap. i. but the desultory temper of its people was incapable of the submission and constancy requisite to form an experienced and disciplined body of infantry. Sometimes, however, the spirit of fanaticism roused them to extraordinary exertions, and on such occasions it was not unusual to see a hundred and fifty thousand armed men on the banks of the Danube. But these efforts were of short duration; the first serious reverse dissipated the mighty host, and reduced its leaders to the command of a few regiments of horse. But though these causes rendered the Ottomans incapable of foreign conquest, they were still extremely formidable to an invading army. Their desert and waterless plains afforded no resources to an enemy, while the total want of roads fit for the passage of wheeled carriages, made it almost impossible to bring supplies from the adjoining states, or advance the artillery requisite for the siege of their fortresses.

IX.

1792.

CHAP. Behind the walls of the most inconsiderable towns, the Janizaries fought with desperate, and often successful valour the whole inhabitants took to arms in defence of their lives and their religion; and, lined with such defenders, trifling cities frequently offered a more formidable resistance than the most regular fortifications of Western Europe.

67.

cline of its

The incessant and grinding oppression, however, of the Constant de- Ottoman government, had implanted a principle of weakpopulation. ness in the Turkish power, little attended to in former times, but of which the effects have since been strikingly displayed. This consisted in the constant and rapid decay of the population, which soon rendered the Osmanlis unequal even to those sudden and vehement exertions, which at former periods had struck such terror into the neighbouring states. At the same time the ignorant and brutal pride of the government, which prevented them from acquiring any knowledge of the situation of the European powers, rendered them incapable of availing themselves of the advantages which their desperate nople,i. 193, struggles frequently afforded, and on more than one ingham's occasion made them throw away the only remaining mia, i. 212. chance of recovering their lost ground from the unceasing hostility of Russia.1

1 Walsh's Constanti

Mesopota

Italy.

68.

From a different cause, the political importance of Italy had sunk as low as that of the Turkish states. Inhabiting the finest country in Europe, blessed with the richest plains and the most fruitful mountains, defended from invasion by the encircling sea and the snow-covered Alps, venerable from the recollections of ancient greatness, and containing the cradle of modern freedom, the people of Italy were yet as dust in the scale of nations. The loss of military courage and of private virtue seems to have been the cause of this sad degradation. When conducted by foreign leaders, the inhabitants of its northern states, like the Portuguese and the Hindoos under British direction, have risen to honourable distinction beneath the

IX.

1792.

standards of Napoleon; but, led by their own officers, CHAP. and following their national colours, they have never, for many centuries, been able to stand the shock of the Transalpine forces. Tuscany, from the effects of the sage and paternal government of Leopold, was flourishing, prosperous, and contented; but the proximity of France had spread the seeds of discontent in Piedmont, and, in common with its inhabitants, the Milanese beheld with undisguised satisfaction the triumph of the republican arms on the other side of the Alps. It was in vain, however, that a smothered feeling of indignation against foreign rule pervaded the Italian states; in vain all their theatres rang with acclamations at the line of Alfieri

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they were incapable of those steady and sustained efforts, which are essential to the establishment either of civil liberty or national independence. Hence, during all the contests of which it was the theatre, Italy became the unresisting prey of the northern victor. The Austrian and French eagles alternately ruled her plains, but the national colours were never unfurled, nor any effort made to liberate them from foreign dominion. On the few occasions on which the Neapolitans and Venetians attempted to raise the standard of independence, they were vanquished by the mere sight of the enemy's force. It is melancholy to reflect, that the descendants of the Romans, the Samnites, and the Cisalpine Gauls, should so far, and to appearance so irrecoverably, have degenerated from the virtue of their ancestors; but it seems to be the law of nature, that a high state of civilisation cannot long coexist with military courage in the favoured climates of the world; and that, as some counterpoise to the lavish Bot. i. 21. accumulation of her gifts, Nature has denied to their 147. inhabitants the permanent resolution to defend them.1 The kingdom of Piedmont, situated on the frontier of

"We are slaves: but slaves ever chafing against our chains."

1

Lac. viii.

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