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Foreign affairs.-Cession of Corsica to France.-The Falkland Islands.-First Partition of Poland.-War between Turkey and Russia.-Acquisitions of Russia.-Suppression of the Jesuits.-Home Politics.-Subscription to Thirty-nine Articles.-Test Act. Thirtieth of January.-Repeal of laws against forestalling.-The queen of Denmark.-Death of the Princess Dowager.-The Royal Marriage Act.-Retrospect of Indian affairs.-East India Company's Regulation Act.-Teas, duty free, to the Colonies.

THE turbulence of home politics, and the threatening aspect of the colonies, left little inclination in the people to think much of foreign affairs. The cession by Genoa, in 1768, of Corsica to France, and the resistance by the Corsican patriot, Paoli, to the occupation of the island by French troops, excited interest in a few who could sympathize with heroic actions. Boswell wrote an account of Corsica. The cold Walpole advises Gray to read it: "What relates to Paoli will amuse you much."* The impressible Gray replies, "It has moved me strangely; all, I mean, that relates to Paoli. He is a man born two thousand years after his time." Corsica was subjugated in 1769, and Paoli became an exile from his country, seeking refuge in England. A month after Corsica was annexed to France, Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio. In 1768 England was within a hair's-breadth of making war with France in the matter of Corsica. "Corsica a province of France is terrible to me," said Burke. The duke of Grafton did not go to war; but he sent secret supplies of arms and ammunition to Paoli, who said he could hold out eighteen months. Insurrections continued through 1770 and 1771. The French minister, the duke de Choiseul, who had annexed Corsica, and was anxious for a rupture with England, was dismissed from power in 1770. My minister wishes for war,” said Louis XV., "but I do not." If war had come, Corsica would most probably have been a British possession; Napoleon Bonaparte a subject of the British crown. He might have chosen England for the theatre of his rising ambition; have commanded a company of British grenadiers in the war of the French Revoiution; and have won a green ribbon instead of an empire.

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In 1770, whilst the influence of the duke de Choiseul was paraFeb. 18, 1768.

mount, Great Britain became involved in a dispute with Spain, which very nearly led to a war in which France would most probably have joined. The Falkland Islands-who cares now to enter into the details of a quarrel about a possession which Johnson calls "tempest beaten barrenness?" These two islands in the South Atlantic were known by English navigators at the end of the sixteenth century. They were not colonised till the French, in 1764, formed a settlement in East Falkland. The British settled in West Falkland in 1767. The French at that time ceded their colony to the Spaniards; and the Spaniards, at a period of profound peace, in 1770, sent a force of five frigates, with sixteen hundred men, from Buenos Ayres, and drove the British from their fort at Port Egmont. Preparations for war were instantly made. The aggression of Spain was the chief topic of the speech with which the king opened the session of Parliament on the 13th of November. There were violent debates in both Houses, the opposition accusing the ministry of supineness and pusillanimity. Johnson wrote a pamphlet in defence of the government, which may be read, now the particular points of the quarrel have ceased to interest, for his forcible descriptions of the calamities of war, and his declamation against the folly of plunging two countries into hostilities upon a question of doubtful right. The Spanish government gave way to remonstrance. Mr. Harris, afterwards lord Malmesbury, was the British Chargé des Affaires at Madrid; and, although at one time war appeared inevi table, the Spanish court finally made restitution. Mr Harris had been recalled from Spain, in consequence of the language of the Spanish ambassador in London. He was twenty leagues from Madrid on his way home, when he met the messenger from St. James's who was sent to say that the Spanish envoy had conceded the demands of the British government.* The sudden change was in consequence of the fall from power of the duke de Choiseul. England and Spain left the naked rocks and bogs of the Falkland Islands to their wild cattle; till in 1840, after an attempt at occupation by the republic of Buenos Ayres, they were again colonised by the English.

The first Partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, was made in 1772. On the 5th of August definitive treaties were signed between these powers, by which nearly a third of the Polish territory was divided amongst them. To Russia was assigned great part of Lithuania; to Austria, Galicia and portions of Podolia and Cracow; to Prussia, Pomerania, and the country of the Vistula. Prussia acquired by far the smallest share of the spoil in extent of • "Diaries and Correspondence of the Earl of Malmesbury," vol. i. p. 61.

FIRST PARTITION OF POLAND.

143

territory, but incomparably the most valuable, when she obtained Dantzic, and the best trading towns of the dismembered country. The events which led to this partition, or rather which were the excuses for it, were connected with the religious and political dissensions of the Polish nobles, priests, and commonalty. An elective monarchy was necessarily subject to the intrusive control of a powerful neighbour. After the death of John Sobieski, at the end of the seventeenth century, his successors Augustus II. and Augustus III. were little more than the representatives of the court of Russia. The influence of the Czarina, Catherine, procured the election of Stanislaus Poniatowski. The favourite of the profligate empress was lifted into a throne by the intrigues of one party of the nobles, supported by a Russian army, From 1764 to 1772 two factions were struggling about civil and religious privileges, whilst their country was more and more exposed to the danger of an entire loss of its independence. Poland could scarcely be called a nation, if by a nation we mean a community of various classes, with a large intermediate class between the highest and the lowest. Poland was a country of nobles and of serfs. When Russia was about to seize the territories which she coveted, Prussia demanded a share; and to prevent the opposition of the other great neighbour, Austria was propitiated with another share. Maria Theresa, personally, was opposed to the scheme; but her opposition was not of that nature which was likely to interfere with its completion. "I let things go their own way," she said, "but not without the greatest grief."

The indifference of the English government to what was consid ered by impartial observers "as the first very great breach in the modern political system of Europe," was manifested in the diplo matic communications of our court. Mr. Harris, now minister at Berlin, kept lord Suffolk well-informed of the negotiations between Prussia and Russia. The Secretary for foreign affairs receives the intelligence very coolly: "I have some reason to apprehend the terms and quantum of this curious transaction are not positively settled, though there is no doubt of the general plan and intention."† Again: "His majesty does not consider the affair of such present importance as to justify acting to prevent it." Mr. Murray, ambassador at Constantinople, who had given some advice to the Porte on the subject, received a very severe admonition from the British government not to meddle with matters on which he had no instructions. Lord Rochford calls the partition of Poland an

"Annual Register," 1772, p.2.

↑ "Malmesbury Diaries," &c., vol. i. p. 70.

$ Ibid., p. 73.

extraordinary and unexpected event:" but says, "I am to infrom you that, although such a change suggests not improbable apprehensions that the trade of Europe may hereafter be affected by it, neither his majesty nor the other commercial powers have thought it of such present importance as to make a direct opposition to it."* The language of the British government only reflected the temper of the country. Burke describes this apathy: "We behold the destruction of a great kingdom, with the consequent disarrangement of power, dominion, and commerce, with as total an indifference and unconcern as we would read an account of the extermination of one horde of Tartars by another, in the days of Gengis Khan and Tamerlane." † Mr. Harris, writing to lord Suffolk in 1774, upon the completion of the Partition by fresh usurpation of territory, indulges a hope which was not to be fulfilled: "There is reason to believe that this affair once settled, that unfortunate Republic, after an uninterrupted series of discord, troubles, and disgraces, for nearly ten years, in which it has lost its liberty, its finest provinces, and all its consideration in the affairs of Europe, will be left quietly to reflect on its misfortunes, and from its insignificance be unmolested." Twenty-one years afterwards, Kosciusko fell; and what remained of Poland was divided amongst the first spoliators.

Intimately connected with the affairs of unhappy Poland was the war between Turkey and Russia. It commenced in October, 1768, under the avowed desire of the sultan, Mustapha III., to save Poland from the calamity of Russian interference in her domestic troubles. The sultan, however, lies under the charge of having proposed a partition of Poland between Turkey and Austria. The war was a serious calamity for the Porte. Its details have become more interesting for us, as the scenes of that conflict present us with the names so familiar in 1855. The war was for some time chiefly between the Polish confederates and their allies the Turks, against the Russian troops in Poland. But it soon assumed the more decisive character of a war for an extension of Russian dominion. The generals of each power, in the judgment of the king of Prussia, had no military skill. The battles were terrible sacrifices of life, without intelligent direction, though the Russians had more pretension to tactics. "To have a proper notion of the contest," said Frederick, "we must figure to ourselves a party of one-eyed people thoroughly beating a party of blind men." Eventually the whole country between the Danube and ↑ "Annual Register," 1772, p. 3.

Appendix to Mahon, vol. v.
"Diaries," &c., vol. i. p. 99

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