tion, which was introduced into thefe parts by Albert of Bran-
denburgh, the firil duke of Pruffia.
March 29. About feventy miles from Konigiberg, we quitted
the Black Eagle of Pruffia and recognized the White Eagle of
Poland j and, paffing through feveral miferable villages, which
announced the wretchednefs of Poland, we reached, on the evening
of the 31ft, Warfaw, without meeting with a Angle objeit
worthy of attention, or a fingle adventure worthy of notice.
This fécond viiit to Warfaw furnilhed me with little additional
matter. Having before defcribed our prefentation at court, and
reception from Staniflaus Auguftus, I ihall not again repeat
fimilar marks of condefcendence and benignity with which I
was honoured by that amiable fovereign, nor the hofpitable
manner in which I was again received by the Poliffi nobility.
The reader will recoiled: that, in 1779, when I firft vifited
Warfaw, I defcribed Poland as almoft a Ruffian province, governed
by the embaffador of Catharine the Second.
In my fécond tour, I found the whole kingdom in a ftate of
the fame fubjeition to Ruffia as in my firft expedition, and fatally
announcing, by its total dépendance on a foreign power, its
fad decline from its former preponderance in the north, and the
wretched conftitution by which it is governed.
Although it is foreign to my purpofe to take notice of any
changes which may have taken place in Poland fince my departure,
in May 1785, yet I cannot avoid remarking, that in 1789
and iJQO, the emprefs of Ruffia entirely loft her influence in
9 that
R E M A R K S ON P O L A N D . 315
that country, withdrew her troops, and recalled her embaflador; CHAP.
V I . and that the natives had made fome efforts to increafe and ■ — A ,
difcipline their army, and to raife their confequence in the con-
fideration of Europe, j
The permanent council has been abolifhed, and feveral alterations
introduced into the form of government, tending to emancipate
the country from the influence of Ruffia, and to reftore it
to itfelf, if it is poffible to reftore a country in which anarchy
is the charafteriftic feature.
But as long as the monarchy continues elective, as long as the
nobles and gentry alone enjoy the right of poflfeffing land, and
as long as the peafants are Haves, all alterations in the form of
government muft be merely nominal, and its effence muft ftill
continue the fame. The king muft always be a puppet in the
hands of his moft powerful neighbour, and the nobles, in whom
are veiled the fupreme authority, turbulent, and above controul,
except awed by fome foreign power.
In fa<St, Poland has no nerve or vigour of its own, but receives
its impulfe from one of the great neighbouring powers by which
it is furrounded. By tire change of northern politics, the king
of Pruffia, in alliance with Great Britain and Holland, has fuc-
ceeded to the influence before poflefled by Catharine the Second,
and direits the republic almoft with the fame unbounded fway.
But the fate of Poland, like that of its vaflal the duke of Courland,
muft ultimately depend upon the event of the prefent war kindled
between Ruffia on one fide, and the Swedes and the Turks on
S f 2 the