The Sun. — London, England, 1812-07-25 00:00:00

ItE-ESTABLISIIMENT QF THE KINGDOM CF POLAND. REPORT OF ME DIET. WATONW, JULY I.—Our - countly•begins at last to emerge from its ruins. Poland is re-.esta blished. A General Diet has been assembled at Wnrsaw, and in the Sitting of the 23d of June, a Committee made the' following Report GENTLEMLY, fr If there ever, existed among men an-important com Mission, or if ever, there was an honourable task aisig.led them, it is, without doubt, that ti-hich we have received from you. If ever 'a work directed to the mind and to the heart all that is caleulated to k rouse •the one or influence the other,, it is certainly that to which you have, directed our attention. Placed, bra concourse of prodigies, at the . cl.ose of the drama, in which our country perish ed, between the .yet recent cradle of . one part Of that same country, and the tomb still open of the other-"-the. picture which we have -to present to you, the :accents in which we should eddress you, to be faithful, ought to ,partieipate in the awful mixture of Life and Death. They ought, at the same time, to convey hope and consolation to the hearts of the victims, : and terror-to 'those of theiroppressors- But that is not enough j it, is fit that there should be placed in your hada, the thread which is to conduct you towards the issue of the labyrinth of misfortune, into which you have been made to wander during half. acen wry. Your footsteps 'must be firmly placed in. the new path, which circumstances lay open be fore you. _ _ _ " Such is the 'extent of the relations under which your Committee has viewed the labour you have committed to its charge: The Committee Las felt, that they had to appear before Europe, as well as before you ; before ages to come, as well as before the• present generation ; before na- - . tions, as well as. before. Sovereigns; they have _said to themselves, above all, that they spojie,he-: fore‘the greatest of Sovereigns,. and before' thei-r own great Nation. They have felt all the sancti ty of your cause,. the magnitude of its results ; and more sustained than terrified by those power ful motives, they come to lay at the feet of, this Senate, a. work, of which they wish to make au offering to the Country, in the persons - of those, in whom it has plaCed its confidence and its hope. "For a long time there had existed in the centre of Europe, a celebrated nation, mistress of an extensive' and - fruitful country, rendered 11- lustrions by the two-fold glory of war, and of the arts, protecting .for ages, with .indefatigable arm, the barriers of Europe against the bar barians whO surrounded—its confines ; and by a character as honourable as singular, having never made,its valour subservient to employ against 'the existence of its neighbours, thoSe.attempts which focceshastoa often coloured under the pktext of justice. A rinmerous population prospered iii its soil, nature liberally rewarded their labours, its Kings had, often received a place in history by the side of those who have 'done most honour to 'sovereignty. On all sides was eagerly courted the honour of sitting on its throne ; if at any time dissensions broke forth in its b6som, those storms obscured only its own horizon, and never carried their ravages to a distance. " Gentleinen, this country was -Poland ; you were this people, and what now are they' become:? In vain our 'eyes look for them in those regions, the union of which forinerly constituted their glory. Alas ! those whom we now see only too •much recal to our minds those who might have been here, and the blessing, though small,'.we 1 -are now permitted to enjoy, only too much re -mitid of that which we have lost. - - . - " But how has this dismemberment of our country been effected—how has this: great family which even and amid its intestine divisions not 'separate, which remained united amid ages of dissension, how has this powerful family been so dismembered What hare been its .crimes, and whil have been: its judges - ? •By what i right' has it been attacked, invaded, . and eficed from the list of States and Nations ? Whence have proceeded its oppressors and its fetters ? The indignant universe might answer you for tifi ! ':.EveryState„ every Nation; might say to you, that it has seen its own tomb opened beside that of Poland. In the audaciousprotana tiou ,of those laws on which all communities equally rely=—in the,insulting contempt that has been shewn of those laws, in order to destroy us —the world has imagined that it has - been deliver ed up to the empire alone of conveniency, and •that soon it should have.no - .other master. Europe, terrified and menaced, might point • out above all,. to your just resentment, that empire, wh i ich in crushing you, was preparis to bear it down hy . a, new weight. We do not doubt, Gentlemen, that it is Russia that is the antlu'ie of all oiir misfor tunes. Not contented with the enjoyment of. a great portion of the globe, the World itself would scarcely satiateiier ambition. During an age past, she has - advanced with gigantic steps upon nations that were even h. , ;ncwant of her mane.' With Peter the First the veitarose, behind which was formed an immense, empire,: where every thipg tenipted Cie' inhabitants to renew upon Europe the inroads Which their fathers had made. This new appear- , anct ought to have filled Europe with alarm, and made her seek in a prudent foresight the iii&UIS of repelling 4113 new danger. She ought to have shut her gates against the ambitiong Prince, who came to be instruoted in all the secrets of her arts, in order to arm, against her, the hands of his fero cious aud servile subjects, .and though the battle of Pultowa seemed only to decidebetween Charles and Sweden, Europe was conquered almost at - the same moment as Sweden. Poland ciperienced ha i!,ediately the erects of this increase of the _Russian power. , Placed in its immediate.vieinity, she re ceived its first as well as' lust attempts. Who In enumerate these attempts, ever since Russia, ill 1717, tried her influence by licensing the Polish unny, ? Since that period, what Moment has there been exempt from her influence, or her outrages ? At first she,preseribed an alternative to that free election which had always decided the throne of our country. / By . th t is she assails those rights of wisi(2l: the nation had always shewn itself inoirt jealou. , . Very soon our fittest provinceS became the "rewards of the favourites of , her sovereigns"; our childreL,Aragged by force into the, ranks of her. :arAnies, were compelled to purchase with • their blood what the 'Russians, alone ought to -have foniOt for. if 'our fields arc covered with harvestit is to,feed her soldiers. Every new war shews, the Russian standards traversing Po land, and her colours living on all sides. It is by continually treading the Polish soil that ithe,Rus- Aan power approaches gradually the body of Europe,- which she aspires to govern. ~" If, by assuming tither forms, thiS crafty power united itself to Poland, it was to imPose tryna her, 'as d in 1764, that, fatal guarantee, which attached .• . the integrity'of out frontiers to the perpetuity of anarchy, for the purpose. of making this anarchy the ineaysaol acconiplishinener ambitious designs,: The world knows what they - have been since this fatal perimil,.. 'lt is since this period - that, piece by • piece; Poland has hen seen entirely to disappear; without crime ns, Avielout revenge.: It is since thiiperiiathat the Poles have indignantly heard theinsulting, language of the Russians and of the . Sivers, whom they have seen holding ) , with daring hand, the reins of 'their own ~,, C overment. lt is since that period that the Russian soldier has a hundred times bathed-his hands in the blood of his fellow-citizenS, paving. the Way for that day for ever execrable (must it be recolleeted) on which, in the midstpfthe yells of a ferocious conqueror Warsaw heard the cries of the people of Pra g ue, which was totally destroy e db yti re a n d sword.Ples, for it is time to make this name resound in your ears,:which is ,yonrs; and which you ought never to have lost;i these are the odious means. by IA ich Russia has . been enabled to appropriate to herself your finest prOvinces- 7 these are the rights, ; the only rights she exercises, over you. Force has' enchained you, and-force may also break -the fetters which it alone 'lilts forged,---They will be broken ! liowCan, you. doubt it, when.you conteMpl i ate what is passing around you ! in- . quire if any thing' which has been your ruin still exists. In this vast revolution which 'in.:- volves the world, why would you recognise :the ancient dangers of your country ? - Instead of the jealousy of power, which kept alive in Europe an anarchy similar •to that which gnawed your own bosom, one spirit only seems to animate the , whole. Your plains are covered with standards,. astonished at their new fraternity - Instead tf neighbours avaricious of your spoils, and accom plices in your destruction, all have joined their - arms with yours. Instead,of those phantoms of armies which the whole of your, ancient territory with difficultyfurnished, numerous "legions issu ing, as if by.enchantthent, from a s,niall portion only.of the same soil, covered with ' the glory of recent victories, formed in the school of 'the "greatest Captains, and, after the example of the greatest, of armies, threaten your spoilers with their. swords, forged of steel,• produced .in the . same country as themselves, and burn with the I desire of hearing the hour of vengeance strike ! .."Stead of those small succours which France lent to ,your necessities, it is the whole of France which is nay in motion, and which advances with steps frightful to your enemies.-- , France was always the ally, the friend of Poland. - Poland, in 'its turn, always returned to France love for.love, in her various relations towards France, whether to give her assistance or , to demand it from her. The first use that Poland - made of her right ,of choosing her own Kings,was r to call to the throne a Prince of Frendh blood. It was to France that Casimir went to ask consolation for the hardships he had experienced on the throne of Poland. It was in a part of France that Stanislaus went to realize the benevolent designs he contemplated for Poland. A , ." It is with nations as with individualS. pathics of interest strengthen between them.the indissoluble bonds of union. . All these are found to subsist between France and Poland, but what formerly was only beldby that small number of men-Whom the minutest re lations of the interests 'of States cannot escape, is become the political_axiom of PolamL Poland 'is neaessary to France, as France is 'to Poland. What do I say ? It is necessary to all Eiirope. Europe has to repose from five and :twenty years, of great agitations. Fier system will .reinain in complete, the price "of her labours and her:blood will not be secUre,so bag as the North shall be able to pour upon her. - those hordes, re specting - the nature of which we must no longer shU our eyes.' 'They are no, longer those men `whom necessity .drove front their _savage abodes, and impelled forwardin all the routes which could lead theth to countries that promied enjoyments riot to be found in their own severe climates. " Among such men, a blind instinct holds the place of those arts which' polish or , defend other Nations. But . h;re, the arts which civilize Man kind are loand associated, even with that bar barism. The Russian has sought instruction from the Europeans ;,.—he has learned from them -every thing that could serve for attack or_defence, that .could, enable him to injure or destroy. The Rus :sian has', in some respects, rendered himself the equal ofltin2alZurope - an, in order tii4Jie night bedome his master. In that country, sueersti-, tions and docile slaves placa all their faculties Mulct the confront of a Government_ familiarised with all kinds of atrocities. At, its voice, -their iadefatigable,*,,arms. have, during, a century, la- - boured - to stop the dykes which confine this toy . rent, always direcfed t 9 overwhelm them. 1.16 w often have, not the Russians alit: overstepped ttese bounds, impelled either by their own inte rest, or by, the imprudent summons of Princes, to whom they, bear concealed chains under their per- fidious succour. In the course of fifty years, Russia has twenty times inundated the south of Europe ivith her arms. The Empire of Constan tinople has been thrown back upon her Crescent, half destroyed. - " Frederick himself could not protect his capi tal. against her. In 'these latter times has received them With honour in her smiling pains, invoking, in vain,.a new . larlas.to rise to her aid: Who could have believed ? The cries of barba rous Scythians - have been 'beard in. the torirb of the Mantuan Swan---k Virgil). •In. their head sttong holdnesS those shrts,-cut down -by the Gallic sword, have fertilized the free coun try 'of the Swiss. The arm of a hero Was requi site. at Austerlitz to arrest their carter. At a period still more reeent, 'the same arm was necessary to drive them back to-their'forests. Numerous, ex amples have made Europe sensible of her danger, and of the remedy , which is required. These dangers and these remedies have, not escaped the observations of a Prixce, who, in his calculations, embraces the future - with the same facility as the present, and who having founded a vast empire, Cannot fail to impart f 6 it all the solidity neces sary for a structure reared by such a succession of toils. = He is aware, that a perpetual and impene "trable bulwark is indispensable against the inroads of i'gnoranCe and barbarisms He is aware, that the, frontier tchich separates civilized from barba rous nations, , lutist „be fortified with brass and with. steel. Inc is aware; that-the nation, form ing as it were the vanguard of Europe, inust• be possessed of power sufficient _to ensure her `re- pose. i lrat other periods every thing seemed to coinhine for our destruction, at present the:,' all unite for our-restoration: Polani then will exist. What do I Say ? she exists already, or rather, she hts never ceased . to exist. How could the Ne fidy, the plot, the violence under which she 'Ails ~nnk, injure her rip:hts ? Yes ; we are Poland ; we are -so by the title.. , :yhich we deriv.efrOm na T tire, froM civil society, _from our ancestorSl; those sacred titles which the'nniverse.recognizes, and the sureties for which are mankind at large. Not only we are so, who already erijoy the re generation of our country, ; but likewise all those Who inhabit those vast territories, that still wait for the era of their deliVerance. . Those .boundaries traced by the hand of vio lence, those barriers reared by suspicion, those .guards' With which she has blOcked up every axle= rtue, all those gloomy forebodings,. which are the attendants pri,usurpation, have not been able ) to alter a common originoior . to break those ties of consanguinity Which establish love and Mutual cOnfidence among a nation, of brothers.' Yes, notwithstanding' so long a separation, the inha bitants of Lithuania, of White Russia, of the Ukraine, of Potolia, and of WolhYnia, are our brothers. Likens they are Poles, and have the same right with us as such to appear:. Our coun try, like a tender parent, still throws open her . ants to all her sons ; and every member has a right to re-unite himself to that family from, which he was torn .by violence. " Poles ! for by whAt other name can' I now address you ? I will no hinger avert thOSe wishes and feelings which ari . bursting:from your hearts. Let them be proclaimed aloud ;. let your lips re, peat them with that energy, which springs from wishes long suppressed, and let the existence Of the kingdoni of Poland be solemnly proclaimed within thv circle," be re-echoectover all Poland, and as hire, -amidst the same sentiments of emo tion, and the same shouts of joy. • " But, to give to those emotions an irresistibl force, to be /more assured of the result which they ought to produce; let us consult the history of,,our ancestors, and let, us ask • what was sug creSted to them, by the ardour of their love for their country; keeping clear of those dangers, which too .frequently di!prived them of those: ad vantages. they ought to have acquired. '" Let not their experience be lost upon us.— Let us stamp upon .this confederation a new character ofthe closeit union. Let us -make it the central point, close to,which we shall always be united, and " - room! Which all those may rally without difficulty',- and witliont. confusion, who, always want a Central point to Which they mat repair. Then, what human power can stay. the unanimous Movement of a great nation, can ar., rest the .rapid march, ofd people who resume theiin• .. ancient existence, and who, to establish it more securely, are willing to forget their former suffer ings, and to double their former sacrifices ? 0, happy day! DA ) , of . gladges. arid of triumph: Before thee .disappear all those days whieh ought to be effaced from our his . tory ) and from the recollection of Mankind: This day-shall be celebrated among all other days'. Our posterity inherit the homage and respeet We pay to . it. For-it . Was reserved/the proclaming a the dear and sacred- name of Poland, whieh lived in .our hearts, 'iand which a cr(iel destiny had ,condemned us to bury there. . Henceforth the descendants of Prest and Jagelton limy adorn thcmselveswith that.name,. of 'which their fathers were proud that name before, which turned pale, Thom for a time, fraud anal. crime had constituted ,yOur masters. Doubt but this land, formerly so fertile in heroes, is about to resume all her ancient lustre. She will again give birth to a Sigismond, and a ! `,... 4 abieski, and ,her _glory will burst forth with re newed Snlendour. The nations resuming, with respect to us, %entiments of justice, will ac knowledge' that nothing was wanting for make every virtue blossOm. upon:i!Olish. ground, but that it should be cultivatt::j. by the hands of free ',men; by 'the . hands of her own sous icleased - from their chains. 5! And you, 'venerable citizen, whom a. centiny almost of virtue has pointed out to the eyes of your - fellow-citizens, -to 'preside - over the most vomit:l-I'6l event of their history, and to guide the first steps of your regenerated country, what an ,af 7 feedug lesson is afforded by the prize of virtue which yoU receive fo-day. Those eyes fixed up on you, those tears which your presence:causes to flow, tell the youthful hearts of your fellow pa-, triots what is reserved 'for services similar to yours. Stationed, if may speak sO, at the-two extremes of the life of your Comitry, you will have assisted at the twilight of her first, and the dawn of her'second life you will have seen her rise and her fail. What a ;destiny for a citi zen lik e y ou That destiny, decreed, that fifty yearrhack, you should_ fill rn_ that Diet which made the first step 'towards a better government, the same place, whieh :you now fill in this whichhas been 'saiumoned . tO insure our existence and happiness as a nation: , " Nation of Polish Patriots F---When you va nished from their eyes, you carried along Nvith you th,e•gods saved from the conflagration of your ... 4 LONDON: Pnnted Ly'THOMAS WOOD, of No : 35, Maiden lane, Covent-garden; and Published by WILLIAM AILMIGER SCRIPPS, South . 111 ° 1 ton-street, Grogre.rmr-s, tual C, country. - I.lq - tettun ro it to-day to receive perpetual adulation ; to dwell in it in a tenlPl e —round which the whole nation, made its misfohnues' t trained to. Cross-lance, by tlrz recollection of the 'sufferings they have un'lL l- gone; will never cease to keep a watchful gIIP-u: and will adorn it with all those virtues, which all periods haVe belonged to the ,Polish which they swear to'defend with nil their gics, even at the expence of ~the blood of their sons. To accomplish thoSe generous iesolatio:% s, and to, render their effect permanent and p'f petual, your Committee has the, honour •of pa senting,you with the act Of cOnfederaticin. ACT OF THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF roi.ASP' POLISH DIET. We, the Undersigned, composing , the Diet assembled at Warsaw, feel th e Moment t! lii which every thing around excites our: ' tion, and pervades.odr he;arts with ardent,pitrivt ism. We feel our natioacaliel OpOn to ttl e inOst . .energetic- exertions, trot the eves: of. (l'l,world are fixed 'Tot() that posterity', judgin_L.; of our conductpwill eit;;er hl es, 3 t o r 0-e , " cr lte our mcnioliies. desiruns ts.;J•i();.1. 01 e -, ;ltemplatii* our actual relat.tow;, we have `)- pointed a Committee to consider of, and report us tbOSt! relations : this 'v ishing to ,pi rit those Means which Ilea ven llas dipeused to o' and at the sztme tiMe . thelineof con':uct is pin t td out which we should follow. And according to these niost important representations, we have r e ' solved to unite, and form a General Confeter 4 ". tion. In order to evince the purity of our mo tive l and objects, we declare, in th e f ac e H eave n an' earth, and of the Polish nation, that we have "° other view than the restoration of our cinotil' hitherto dismembered by unprincipled violenc e ' end to regenerate- its pristine 'prosperity and patience, that we tame in general confederatio n ' with the 'consent and under the authority of Q ta. gracious Sovereign, F r ed er i c 'A u g ustus , Gra' s4 j , t Duke of WarW, and King of Sakony, having _our head. the Prince Adam.Czartorysky, Starost e ' I.GeneraLofPadolia, Naneco (Nonce) of War , : 4 " v i a . eitizen respectable by his age and. virtucs-- -11 ": We continue faithful to the religion of our father = ' the Catholic and-Ap o stoli c , a t th e same time dispense a perfect tolerance to all other 11411s - 3 1 ' P , lowing thus the example of our ancestors in 6'n ° 'when all Europe was afflicted With sangainaty r i ligious . .wars—that we respect the a uthorities , t ' a the thrones the laws of the nation, and that `` t cherish in all its purify th:lt nail/mai spirit, wl=l('/, for ageS baS`beed 'the disti ngnishing characteris tic of the Polonese: Guided, 4 l.)y similar considerations, we are tits' ,willing,to arrive by any but-the most legal n3-01.1,-.; .at our glorwus object. And w ell reco ll ec ting disastrous events whieh h ave p nsse d, we soleo l Y r declare, that the General Confederatio n wilt iabberrate from the path it has prescribed, nor lerate abuses, which 'must end b u t i n th e rul3 ° the country. • 'ln consequence, the administratio n o f jO tice will vest in the legal. a u th or iti es ; w hil e the C"; federation shall exercise in full plenitude, powers which appertain to a general assemblY °f the nation; labouring in the grand work of 1 : E ; storing the country, and propagating with energies, a national enthusiasm. In order to confer on the Confederation,, posed of 'the Members oftheeDiet, the whole rub lie National Authorities, - &c. the means of 1 11 : ° , t ; ceeding with_ activity, we delegate the power sv: t , which it is inyested'to a C ounc il G enera l, vri:`, c shall he assisted by the Marshal, and sh a ll 1501° to sittings at Warsaw, and as an enterprise orif - ii ° . o ing - in motives so virtuou s ju s tly mer it s it, use sent a deputation to his Majesty the King of oriy, to honour it with LAS formal approbation - The cause 'of suffering innocence cannot be r e e .... garded but-as that of God ; so b r illi an t-a pr°, , c, dure must extend influence throughout , vi e rope. This renovation--,which will afford to t b , world an example of what' should . be done for ° pressed humanity---which ; will restore P0 1 ° . ,",, r t .; P0 1 ° . ,",, ~i ts ancient prosperity, will present to the first pire in the world an ally equally faithful and 1 ! 7° „ thy. An ally which, fi-oin its ,gei - sgraphical tbl tion-and national charact..T, it will have noi3 to apprehend from, but -eVery thing to hope; 3;1 therefore we most fondly conclude that empire Will not refuSe to one virtuous undertal,eoi its powerful assistance. We lay at the fee t throne the assurance of o t ir coe7idence and de v il ., tion, and implore that its creating word may °it plete that existence which we have incipiently I cc i ived . from But in order to render ourselves worthy of is ,glorious ptotection, we most sallnimly aver , r i i r 'pp po4sible- event shall chill that patriotic ar"P to which unites us, that. we s h a ll p er s e vere s ja,.. glorious career, until we have ee-united 6 ' l ' v , sours ail those members of our common / 339 ' those brothers of our love, wltich the baud a tY Faony has separated from as. "Venders ! you whom We thus call again t° Z V boson), judge of'Onr feelings by your implore you in the name of cur common ril°t` i hcc e to unite mutually all your powers, and fry t° support. Let her again press you to her heart : D o ; -presents, to your exertions the equal read to vAi ...l a and to glory. Let us- join in brotherly uniau, the Divine Justice will not withhold our de sc 'e,i=- recompence.. We shall again see the arms of th uan ia grace our escutcheons ; and be ° N a . s l i t 'i t t . l p e l l s.),, c ii ; tile fields of Volhinia, as well .as the of Podolia and of -the Ukraine, -resound ', a • the joyouS Shoots . of—Live Poland ! L ive country. mber A Decree then follows, cOnsisting_of a n tl " .of articles, for the purpose of reducing the ciples and system contemplated in the above duration into practice raid-detail. The -Articles of Confederation are if-gnealb, M. STANISLAS, Comte ZAIOYSKY, Sellatair LATIN, and by several other Officers holding e ployments in the State. e tbf lt The 'prominent article the Decree t he f`A deputation shall be sent to his .Iklajen:" er to Emperor Napoleon, King of lialy, tg t tit present to: him the Acts of the Conf ederat e l r ° o l .'' and to implore 'him to criver with his po' protection, the Cradle of Polish Regcneratiall.