i66 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.
The dyct of Poland breaking np without fettling any one na- tional affair, the Ccurlandcrs are iuft where they were before ; for though the Emprefs of Ruffia and King of Pohiiid may declare the Jeat of ihtir duke to be vacant, the republic mult concur in this \er- ciid before it can be filled up ;
- ind fhould thefe two fovt-reigris
attempt by force to carry an elec- tion in Courjand in favour of Prince Charles, it might pofllbly occafion an infurredion in Poland, Befides, the change of religion required for qualifying him to be a candidate, is another bar to his preferment : but this might, per- haps, be got over wiih the help of a difpenfation from Rome, allowing Jiim to keep covenants with his fubjedls only till he fhould be able to break them.]
Tranflation of the Univerfalia jfl'ued by the king of Poland, for the affembling of a general dyet of the ftates at Warfaw.
'^ Auguflus III, by the graceof God King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, &c.
In the horrid calamities which have fo long affliifled our heredi- tary dominions, the happinefs and profperity of the republic is the greateft alleviation we can find to the grief with which we are pene- trated.
In 1756, about the time that vas fixed for the ordinary dyct, the whole force of the enemy came and fell upon our heredi- tary dominions, and at one in- llant prclented us with a profpcft of all the misfortunes that were afterwards to enfue to that unhap- py country.
This idea, painful as it was, ^yould not fo deeply have wounded
onr paternal bread, if the army of an entrrprizing neighbour, which (urrounded us on all fides, had not prevented us from coming to you at the time appointed for the alTem- bling of the ftntes of the republic ; for the fight of that aflembly, and of a people that have bern ever dear to uj, would have afl'uaged our other forrows.
The tenor of the laws em- powers us to convoke the general dyet this year at Warfaw, in or- der to treat there of the feveral neccflities of the republic ; there- fore waving the cnnfideration of the toil attached to this obligation, and animated only with the pleafing hopes of the public good, which, through your unanimity, may per- haps refult from thence to the country, we fix the faid ordinary dyet at Warfaw on the zd of Odlober, 1758 ; the anti-comitial dyet at the ufual place on the 2 id of Auguft; and that of the gene- rality for the iSth of the fame month.
As in former dyets we never propofed any thing relating to our own private in'erelis, or ihofe of our royal family, fo we now fo- lemnly protell, that we have no fuch views in this, and that we are very far from feeking our ow n advantage to the prejudice of Po- land, by wanting to involve it in the prefent fatal troubles of the reft of Europe,
It is by fo upright a con- dud that we hope to filence all 1 thofc, who, by fecret and artful infiiiuations, endeavour to deftrcy j the confidence that fubfi^s between ourfclves and the fiates of the republic, and render fufpicicus our moll faJ'jLtary meafures for your welfare, that they may per- petuate disorder in the country,
over-
