(_For the Mirror._)
Poland was once the country of the Vandals, who left it to invade the
Roman Empire. The kingdom began, by favour of Otho III., Emperor of
Germany, under Boleslaus, 999; Red Russia was added to it in 1059;
Pomerania, that had been separated 180 years, again united with it,
1465; embraced Christianity, 965; the order of the White Eagle
instituted in 1705. The peasants in Poland were serfs or slaves, and
the value of an estate was not estimated from its extent, but from the
number of the peasants who were transferred, like cattle, from one
master to another. The first person who granted freedom to his peasants
was Zamoiski, formerly grand chancellor, who in 1760 enfranchised six
villages. The Jews were first introduced into Poland about the time of
Casimir the Great; they were indulged with great privileges, and became
so numerous that Poland was styled the Paradise of the Jews. So late as
the thirteenth century, the Poles retained the custom of killing old men
when past their labour, and such children as were born imperfect. "The
natural strength of Poland, if properly exerted, (says a modern writer)
would have formed a more certain bulwark against the ambition of her
neighbours than the faith of treaties;" and it is worthy of remark, that
of the three partitioning powers, Prussia was formerly in a state of
vassalage to the republic; Russia once saw her capital and throne
possessed by the Poles, under Sigismund III. whose troops got possession
of Moscow, and whose son, Ladislaus, was chosen Great Duke of Muscovy,
by a party of the Russian nobles; and Austria was indebted to John
Sobieski, King of Poland, who, in 1683, compelled the Turks to raise the
siege of Vienna, and delivered the house of Austria from the greatest
dangers it ever experienced.
"The partition of Poland (says Mr. Coxe,) was first projected by the
King of Prussia."
In 1794, Suwarof laid siege to Praga, a fortified suburb of Warsaw, and
carried it by assault, with a tremendous carnage. The king was compelled
to abdicate, and the whole country was incorporated in the dominion of
Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
Early in 1797 Stanislaus arrived at Petersburg, and, according to the
appointment of the sovereign, fixed his residence in the Marble Palace,
on the banks of the Neva; but his death, which happened on the 12th of
February, 1798, terminated the series of Polish sovereigns:
"Hope for a season bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shriek'd as Kosciusko fell."
Queen Elizabeth so highly prized the merit and abilities of Sir Philip
Sydney, that she sent him ambassador to Vienna, and to several courts in
Germany; and when the fame of his valour became so extensive that he was
put in election for the crown of Poland, she refused to further his
advancement, lest (says Baker) she should lose the brightest jewel of
her crown. This Marcellus of the English nation was killed at the battle
of Zutphen, in 1585, while he was mounting the third horse, having
before had two killed under him.