Kościuszko). But the king, and even Kollontaj, despairing of success, now acceded to the confederation; hostilities were suspended, the indignant officers threw up their commissions; the rank and file were distributed all over the country; the reformers fled abroad; and the constitution of the 3rd of May was abolished by the Targowicians as “a dangerous novelty.” The Russians then poured into eastern Poland; the Prussians, at the beginning of 1793, alarmed lest Catherine should appropriate the whole Republic, occupied Great Poland; and a diminutive, debased and helpless assembly met at Grodno in order, in the midst of a Russian army corps, “to come to an amicable understanding” with the partitioning powers. After Second Partition of Poland. every conceivable means of intimidation had been unscrupulously applied for twelve weeks, the second treaty of partition was signed at three o'clock on the morning of the 23rd of September 1793. By this pactum subjectionis, as the Polish patriots called it, Russia got all the eastern provinces of Poland, extending from Livonia to Moldavia, comprising a quarter of a million of square miles, while Prussia got Dobrzyn, Kujavia and the greater part of Great Poland, with Thorn and Danzig. Poland was now reduced to one-third of her original dimensions, with a population of about three and a half millions.
The focus of Polish nationality was now transferred from Warsaw, where the Targowicians and their Russian patrons Kościuszko. reigned supreme, to Leipzig, whither the Polish patriots, Kościuszko, Kollontaj and Ignaty Potocki among the number, assembled from all quarters. From the first they meditated a national rising, but their ignorance, enthusiasm and simplicity led them to commit blunder after blunder. The first of such blunders was Kościuszko's mission to Paris, in January 1794. He was full of the idea of a league of republics against the league of sovereigns; but he was unaware that the Jacob1ns themselves were already considering the best mode of detaching Prussia, Poland's worst enemy, from the anti-French coalition. With a hypocrisy worthy of the diplomacy of “the tyrants,” the committee of public safety declared that it could not support an insurrection engineered by aristocrats, and Kościuszko returned to Leipzig empty-handed. The next blunder of the Polish refugees was to allow themselves to be drawn into a premature rising by certain Polish officers in Poland who, to prevent the incorporation of their regiments in the Russian army, openly revolted and led their troops from Warsaw to Cracow. Kościuszko himself condemned their hastiness; but, when the Russian troops began to concentrate, his feelings grew too strong for him, and early in April he himself appeared at Cracow. In an instant the mutiny became a revolution. The details of the heroic but useless struggle will be found elsewhere (see Kościuszko, Kollontaj, Potocki, Ignaty, Dombrowski). Throughout April the Polish arms were almost universally successful. The Russians were defeated in more than one pitched battle; three-quarters of the ancient territory was recovered, and Warsaw and Vilna, the capitals of Poland and Lithuania respectively, were liberated. Kościuszko was appointed dictator, and a supreme council was established to assist him. The first serious reverse, at Szczekociny (June 5), was more than made up for by the successful defence of Warsaw against the Russians and Prussians (July 9 to Sept. 6), but in the meantime the inveterate lawlessness of the Poles had asserted itself, as usual, and violent and ceaseless dissensions, both in the supreme council and in the army, neutralized the superhuman efforts of the unfortunate but still undaunted dictator. The death-blow to the movement was the disaster of Maciejowice (Oct. 10), and it expired amidst the carnage of Praga (Oct. 29), though the last Polish army corps did not capitulate till the 18th of November. Yet all the glory of the bitter struggle was with the vanquished, and if the Poles, to the last, had shown themselves children in the science of government, they had at least died on the field of battle like men. The greed of the three partitioning powers very nearly led to a rupture between Austria and Prussia; but the tact and statesmanship of the empress of Russia finally adjusted all difficulties. On the 24th of October 1795 Prussia acceded to the Austro-Russian partition compact of the 3rd of January, Third Partition of Poland, 1796. and the distribution of the, conquered provinces was finally regulated on the 10th of October 1796. By the third treaty of partition Austria had to be content with Western Galicia and Southern Masovia; Prussia took Podlachia, and the rest of Masovia, with Warsaw; and Russia all the rest.
The immediate result of the third partition was an immense emigration of the more high-spirited Poles who, during the next ten years, fought the battles of the French Republic and of Napoleon all over Europe, but principally against their own enemies, the partitioning powers. They were known as the Polish legions, and were commanded by the best Polish generals, e.g. Joseph Poniatowski and Dombrowski. Only Kościuszko stood aloof. Even when, after the peace of Tilsit, the independent grand-duchy of Warsaw was constructed out of the central provinces of Prussian Poland, his distrust of Napoleon proved to be invincible. He was amply justified by the course of events. Napoleon's anxiety to conciliate Russia effectually prevented him from making Poland large and strong enough to be self-supporting. The grand-duchy of Warsaw originally consisted of about 1850 sq. m., to which Western Galicia and Cracow, about 900 sq. m. more, were added in 1809. The grand-duchy was, from first to last, a mere recruiting-ground for the French emperor. Its army was limited, on paper, to 30,000 men; but in January 1812 65,000, and in November the same year 97,000 recruits were drawn from it. The constitution of the little state was dictated by Napoleon, and, subject to the exigencies of war, was on the French model. Equality before the law, absolute religious toleration and local autonomy, were its salient features. The king of Saxony, as grand-duke, took the initiative in all legislative matters; but the administration was practically controlled by the French.
The Congress Kingdom, 1813-1863.—The Grand Duchy of
Warsaw perished with the Grand Army in the retreat from
Moscow in 1812. The Polish troops had taken a prominent
part in the invasion of Russia, and their share in the plundering
of Smolensk and of Moscow had intensified the racial hatred
felt for them by the Russians. Those of them who survived
or escaped the disasters of the retreat fled before the tsar's army
and followed the fortunes of Napoleon in 1813 and 1814. The
Russians occupied Warsaw on the 18th of February 1813 and
overran the grand duchy, which thus came into their possession
Alexander I. and Poland.
by conquest. Some of the Poles continued to hope
that Alexander would remember his old favour for
them, and would restore their kingdom under his
own rule. Nor was the tsar unwilling to encourage their
delusion. He himself cherished the desire to re-establish
the kingdom for his own advantage. As early as the 13th of
January 1813 he wrote to assure his former favourite and confidant,
Prince Adam Czartoryski, that, “Whatever the Poles
do now to aid in my success, will at the same time serve to
forward the realization of their hopes.” But the schemes of
Alexander could be carried out only with the co-operation
of other powers. They refused to consent to the annexation of
Saxony by Prussia, and other territorial arrangements which
The Congress of Vienna.
would have enabled him to unite all Poland in his
own hand. By the final act of the Congress of
Vienna, signed on the 9th of June 1815, Poland was
divided between Prussia, Austria and Russia, with one trifling
exception: Cracow with its population of 61,000 was erected
into a republic embedded in Galicia. Posen and Gnesen, with
a population of 810,000, were left to Prussia. Austria remained
in possession of Galicia with its 1,500,000 inhabitants. Lithuania
and the Ruthenian Palatinates, the spoil of former partitions,
continued to be incorporated with Russia. The remnant was
constituted as the so-called Congress Kingdom under the
emperor of Russia as king (tsar) of Poland. It had been stipulated
by the Final Act that the Poles under foreign rule should
be endowed with institutions to preserve their national existence
