individual. Having confessed his crime, Ankerstrom was tried, condemned to die, and executed. Baron Beilke, the king's private secretary, was arrested on suspicion, but had evaded the vengeance of the law by swallowing poison; and two and two other accomplices were sentenced to share the fate of the principal assassin. The regent, however, in order to impress the public with a conviction of his clemency, or to sooth the passions of the conspirators, who were powerfully supported, commuted their expected punishment for that of exile.

The kingdom of Poland was at this period destined to fall a sacrifice to the ambition and injustice of the empress Catharine. On the 21st of April the diet received the first notification from the king, of the inimical and unjust intentions of Russia. He informed them, that without the shadow of pretence, this avowed enemy of the rights of mankind had determined to invade the territory of the republic with an army of 60,000 men. This formidable banditti, commanded by generals Soltikof, Michelson, and Kosakofski, was afterward to be supported by corps amounting to 20,000 men, and by the troops then acting in Moldavia, amounting to 70,000. The diet and nation arose as one man to assert their independence. All private animosities were obliterated; all private interests were sacrificed. The spirit manifested by the nobles was truly honourable. Some of them delivered their plate to the mint. Prince Radzvil engaged voluntarily to furnish 10,000 stand of arms, and a train of artillery. Prince Poniatofsky, nephew to the king, was appointed commander-in-chief; and, notwithstanding the great inferiority of his force, made a noble stand. On the 24th of May, the enemy's cossacks were repulsed, and pursued by the public patroles to their entrenchments. On the 26th the picquets discovered a large body of Don cossacks approaching the outposts, and a squadron of cavalry, commanded by lieutenant Kwasniefski, supported by lieutenant Golejofski, with two squadrons more, in all about 300, marched out to

meet them. They attacked 'the cossacks with success, but pursued them with more valour than prudence, to the side of a wood, where they found themselves drawn into an ambuscade and surrounded by 2000 horse, two battalions of chasseurs, and six pieces of cannon. The intrepid Poles bravely fought their way through the Russian line, and killed upwards of 200 of the enemy. The Poles in this engagement lost 100 men and two officers, one of whom, lieutenant Kwasniefski, was wounded and made prisoner. The remainder of the detachment reached their quarters in safety.

Perhaps the history of man, previous to the atrocities of Buonaparte, can scarcely furnish an instance of perfidy, meanness, and duplicity, more flagrant, than the conduct of the king of Prussia on this occasion. By the treaty of defensive alliance solemnly contracted between the republic of Poland and the king of Prussia, and ratified on the 23rd of April, 1790, it was expressly stipulated, "That the contracting parties shall do all in their power to guarantee and preserve to each other reciprocally, the whole of the territories which they respectively possess : that in case of menace or invasion from any foreign power, they shall assist each other with their whole force if necessary: and that if any foreign power, on any pre tence whatever, shall presume to interfere in the internal affairs of Poland, his Prussian majesty shall consider this as a case falling within the meaning of the alliance, and shall assist the republic." Yet on the application of the Poles to the court of Berlin, for the succours thus solemnly stipulated, they received for answer, "That the treaty was dated previous to the new constitution; and that constitution, establishing a new order of things, his Prussian majesty held himself absolved from his engagement." Of such value are treaties in the eyes of despotic monarchs. The enormity of the king of Prussia's conduct was aggravated by the circumstances that many of the obnoxious acts of which the empress complained in her declaration against the Poles, were done

by the influence and advice of Prussia: that when the constitution was proposed, the king of Prussia never gave the smallest intimation that the new order of things would dissolve the alliance; and that on the 17th of May, 1791, M. Goltz chargé d'Affaires, from the court of Berlin, formally announced his sovereign's approbation of the new arrangement.

The duchy of Lithuania was the great scene of action at the beginning of the war, but the Russians had made little progress till the middle of the month of June. The army of Poniatofski distinguished itself by the most heroic feats of valour, skill, and intrepidity. After several conflicts between detachments in which the Poles displayed their courage, without obtaining any decided advantage, the two armies approached each other near Zielimc. A pitched battle ensued, in which, after a conflict of ten hours, victory at last declared for the patriots: the Russians leaving 4000 men dead upon the field.

Notwithstanding this advantage, the Poles were compelled to retire before the numerous and disciplined armies of their invaders. Nieffez, Wilna, Minsk, and several other places of less consequence, fell into their hands one after the other. On a truce being proposed to the Russian general Kochofski, the proposal was haughtily rejected, while the desertion of brigadier Rudnicki, and several others who preferred dishonour to personal danger, proclaimed a tottering cause.

This unequal contest was prematurely terminated. The king, whose benevolent intentions were overpowered by his mental imbecility, and whose age and infirmities rendered him unequal to the difficulties and dangers which attend a protracted war, instead of appearing according to his first

resolve at the head of his army, determined to surrender at discretion. Deceived by the friendly professions of Catharine, he mispent the precious moments in fruitless negotiations which ought to have been employed in unremitted and vigorous resistance. He called a meeting of the different provinces, in order to deliberate on the measures to be adopted, and obtained a decree that his subjects should lay down their arms. Yet the whole of the Polish nobles did not acquiesce in the surrender of their country's rights and independence. Count Malachouski, and the princes Radzivil and Sapieha, placed their names at the head of a protest against the proceedings. of he confederation, and were rewarded by the attachment of their countrymen, and the benevolent support of the people of England, who had already transmitted considerable sums intended to assist the struggle of the Poles for independence, and were afterwards equally liberal in relieving. their misfortunes. It cannot be doubted that the example presented by Russia to the other powers of Europe, materially contributed to many future acts of oppression and atrocity. The growing happiness of a respectable nation had been sacrificed to the personal ambition of three despotic sovereigns: the citizens of a free republic were reduced to the most abject subjection, and the balance of power so necessary to the permanent welfare of Europe, was sa crificed to private and selfish views; while the nations, who on former occasions had devoted to its preservation millions of lives, and enormous treasures, viewed with frigid tranquillity, the violation of every acknow ledged principle of the law of nations, and. the triumph and fatal increase of despotic authority.

T

HE apprehensions excited in the city of Paris by the capture of Longwy and Verdun, were increased by a report which had been industriously circulated, that a rapid march of a few hours would bring the duke of Brunswick to the vicinity of Paris. Alarm and melancholy were painted in every countenance, when the minister of justice, M. Danton, proposed a measure which revived the courage of the people, and converted despair into presumption. He declared that there could not be less than 80,000 stand of arms in the metropolis, in the possession of private individuals, with which he proposed to equip an army of volunteers, not merely to protect Paris from any sudden assault, but to march against the enemy on the shortest notice, and intercept their progress. His plan was enthusiastically adopted; and a decree of the assembly ordered all citizens to keep themselves in readiness for the worst that could happen, if they were not disqualified by bodily distress or the infirmities of age. To render the measure still more efficacious, it was ordered that no person should be permitted to appear in arms who was suspected of enmity to the republican interest.

Robespierre was a member of the first constituent assembly; or which reason, in consequence of their rash and voluntary act, he could not be admitted as a member of

the second, but he had filled the office of public accuser with indefatigable diligence and attention. He had acquired so complete an ascendency over the Jacobins by the violence of his principles, and the sauguinary ferocity of his temper, that he became their ostensible leader. He and the infamous journalist Marat, were in habits of the strictest intimacy with the minister of justice. The duplicity of Petion, uncertain to which party he should devote his unlimited services, diminished his popularity, and in proportion as his reputation began to decline that of Robespierre continued to increase. Of a fiery temper and destitute of erudition, his eloquence was of that species which captivated the vulgar, because it never soared above their comprehension, and inculcated nothing but what perfectly accorded with their sentiments. In the Jacobin club he had been unremittingly clamorous for the trial of the state prisoners, and by his endeavours to satiate the barbarous revenge of the populace he gained their affections.

Whether from a concerted plan to produce a general massacre, or with a view to excite the ardor of the people in defence of the country, the measures pursued by the commune of Paris on the 2nd of September, were pregnant with danger to the tranquillity of the city. Instead of directing the enrolment of volunteers to