1675-1768.] POLAND 297 under the influence of his wife, a woman of great beauty, but avaricious, fond of power, and revengeful. Thus the illustrious soldier had not peace in his own house, nor was he likely to meet with it in the stormy debates of the diet, several of which were broken off by the exercise of the liberum veto ; and so wearisome had his position become that he several times thought of abdicating, and the Austrian party (such was the gratitude he met with) sought to effect this. He finally sank under an accumula tion of disorders, and expired on the 17th June 1696, at his favourite castle of Willanow. Many incidents of his death-bed have been recorded by Zatuski, the bishop of Ptock, which show that the king died ill at ease, being filled with the gravest apprehensions concerning the future of his country. The family is now extinct. With him sank the glory of Poland, which was rapidly hastening to its fall. After a time the diet met as usual to elect the new sovereign. The three chief candidates were James Sobi- eski, the son of the late king ; the prince of Conde", a nephew of Louis XIV.; and the elector of Saxony. The elector was appointed, and, in order to qualify for the throne, abjured Protestantism. In 1699, by the peace of Carlowitz, the Turks renounced all claim over the Ukraine and Podolia, but the king was foolish enough to allow himself to be drawn into a war with the Swedes, in conse quence of which Cracow was taken in 1702. Charles XII. of Sweden became master of the country, and de- posed the newly elected Frederick Augustus, in whose place was chosen Stanistaw Leszczynski, palatine of Posen, a man of benevolence and learning. All the courts of Europe recognized this new king except the czar Peter, and when the latter defeated Charles at the battle of Poltava in 1709 Leszczynski was compelled to leave the country, and Augustus II., as he was styled, was restored. Stanistaw at the approach of the Russian troops retired to Lorraine, which he governed till his death at an advanced age. In this reign Poland lost Courland, which had long been one of its fiefs, but was now seized by the Russians and given by tho empress Anne to her favourite Biren. The Dissi dents, as the Protestants were called, were slowly decreas ing in number, and in an emeute which occurred at Thorn in 1724 many were cruelly put to death. A little later, in 1733, a law was passed by which they were declared incapable of holding any office or enjoying any dignity. Augustus II. died at Warsaw in the last-mentioned year. He was a contemptible king, notorious for his private vices. At the instigation of many of the Poles, Stanistaw Leszczynski, who was now residing in Lorraine, and had become the father-in-law of Louis XV., was induced to return to Poland, and was elected king at Warsaw by a large majority. This election, however, was displeasing to Austria and Russia, who resolved to resist his preten- sions and to secure the election of Frederick Augustus, - the son of the late king. A Russian army arrived in the ne ighbourhood f Warsaw, and a party of the nobles opposed to the French influence proclaimed the Saxon. He accordingly swore to the pacta conventa, and was crowned king at Cracow in 1734. Meanwhile the unfortunate Stanistaw fled to Dantzic, where he hoped to hold out till assistance should arrive from France. The city, however, was obliged to capitulate after a siege of five months ; and Stanistaw, after many adventures and narrow escapes, reached the Prussian dominions. In 1736 a diet of pacifi cation was held at Warsaw, which was followed by a general amnesty. The condition of the country during this reign was deplorable, although Poland was engaged in no wars. Factions rent the government, and the peasantry, crushed and suffering, betook themselves to robbery and pillage. The king was a man of low tastes, and abandoned himself to pleasure. One of his favourite amusements was shooting dogs from the windows of his palace at Warsaw, in conse quence of which dogs became very scarce in the city. He was too idle to learn a word of Polish, and left everything to the management of his minister Briihl. Frederick died on October 3, 1763, at Dresden, where he was buried. In 1764 Stanistaw August Poniatowski was elected king, Stanis chiefly through the machinations of the Russian empress laus Catherine. The new monarch was a man of refined - manners and elegant mind, but weak, and a mere puppet 95). in Muscovite hands. He caused the liberum veto to be abolished, but it was soon restored (in 1766), in conse quence, it is said, of Russian influence, as the ruin of Poland had been resolved upon. In 1768 a few patriots met at the little town of Bar in Podolia, and formed what was called the Confederation of Bar, their object being to free the country from foreign influence. Among the members of this confederation were the Pulawskis (Casi- mir and Joseph), Joachim Potocki, and Adam Krasinski, bishop of Kamenets. Their military operations extended over all Poland and Lithuania, but the Russian troops stationed round the capital prevented the junction of the confederates with the national army. Moreover the con federates, whose number amounted to about eight thousand fighting men, were badly organized. In spite of a few trifling successes they saw their efforts gradually growing weaker. Nor did a bold attempt to carry off the king result in success. Their party speedily broke up, and Casimir Pulawski, one of the leading spirits, left the country and joined the Americans in their War of In dependence, in which he soon afterwards perished. In consequence of the efforts of these patriots the pernicious liberum veto was put a stop to, though afterwards for a short time restored ; but the partition of the country had already been secretly agreed upon by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The idea appears to have been first suggested by Frederick the Great. M. Rambaud, in his Ilistoire de la Russie, gives the following as the chief causes which led to the destruction of Poland, which, in addition, had always suffered from the want of natural frontiers : 1. The national movement in Russia, which fostered the idea of recovering the provinces in the west which had formerly been Russian territory, and spoke a language but little differing from Russian. To this was to be added the fact that the majority of the inhabitants were members of the Greek Church. This feeling had already led to the conquest of some of the western provinces in the time of Alexis Mikhailovich as previously mentioned. Moreover, the members of the Greek Church were being constantly persecuted by the Jesuits, who had done so much mischief to the country. " 2. The great desire of Prussia to become possessed of the lower part of the Vistula, with the towns of Thorn ami Dantzic. A reason for Prussian interference was afforded by the Polish persecution of the " Dissidents," as a sample of which the cruelties committed at Thorn may be cited. 3. The general political condition of Poland an anachronism among the nations of Europe. They had become strong by centralized power and by harmonizing their governments with the spirit of the age. In Poland there was no middle class ; for the trade in the towns was in the hands of foreigners, and especially Jews. There were to be seen a proud nobility, the members of which were engaged in constant feuds among them selves, and far below them miserable serfs deprived of all political rights. There was no national spirit in the country, no sympathy between the nobility and peasantry. It was the Jews who chiefly busied themselves with com merce ; they distributed the products, selling at the same time to the serfs and their masters, and preventing the two classes of the natives of the country to a great extent from coming into contact with each other. By their efforts the economic functions of every-day life were carried on, and yet they could not be considered a real part of the nation. In the moment of danger they were not at hand to bring together distinct classes and to establish a common bond
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