loſt his weight in the conſtitution; the total confuſion in all public affairs; the declenſion of importance, and loſs of territory—all ſhew that abſolute monarchy is preferable to ſuch a republic. Would twelve millions of inhabitants, under an Engliſh conſtitution, or under the conſtitution of any one of the United States, have been partitioned and diſmembered? No; not by a league of all the abſolute ſovereigns of Europe againſt them at once.—Such are the effects of collecting all authority into one center, of neglecting an equilibrium of powers, and of not having three branches in the legiſlature.
The practice of cantoning a body of ſoldiers near the plain where the kings are elected, has been adopted by ſeveral foreign powers for near a century; and, although it may be galling to the nobility, prevents the effuſion of blood that formerly deluged the aſſembly. This was done, at the election of Staniſlaus Auguſtus, by the empreſs of Ruſſia and the king of Pruſſia; five thouſand Ruſſian troops were ſtationed at a ſmall diſtance from the plain of Vola.
Staniſlaus was in the thirty-ſecond year of his age when he aſcended the throne, in 1764. From his virtues and abilities, the faireſt hopes were conceived of his raifſing Poland from its deplorable ſituation; but his exertions for the public good were fettered by the conſtitution, by the factions of a turbulent people, and the intrigues of neighbouring powers. His endeavours to introduce order at home, and independence abroad, which would have increaſed the power of his country, and her conſideration with foreign nations, alarmed the neighbouring powers. The ſpirit of religious intolerance produced a civil
