Volume 1

Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark. Illustrated with charts and engravings / By William Coxe.

  • Coxe, William, 1747-1828.
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark. Illustrated with charts and engravings / By William Coxe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/448 (page 15)
    - For a kingdom containing near fourteen mil- lion inhabitants, if well regulated, would never have fallen an eafy prey to the ambition of its neighbours; its internal ftrength, affifted by its natural alliances, would have protracted, if not prevented, the difmemberment. Nor are the fa- tal effeCts of the evils inherent in the conftitution yet fully exhaufted ; the fame incapacity of re- fitting the encroachments of neighbouring pow- ers, which rendered the Poles paffive during the late partition, will render them equally fubmiffive* when future claims fhall be urged bv a fimilar combination, and compel them to acquiefce un- der any pretenfions, however chimerical or un- juft. In fhort, anarchy and confufion are not only tolerated, but are even fuppofed by the nobles to be neceffary for the fupport of the conftitution, in conformity to a national proverb, that ££ Po- land fubfijls by anarchyP In opposition to this abfurd idea, Sarnifki advifes his countrymen no longer to Suffer the republic to be governed by chance, or to Submit to the caft of the die the administration of affairs, on which their very exiftence as a nation depends i * Non condemnetis (fays Sarnifki, in the finking pafTage to which I allude, and of which it is impollible to preferve the fpirit in a tranflation) qusefo prudentiffimorum virorum confilia 5 nee fmatis amplius cafu rernpublicam regi, nec permittatis dub'ue aka res, in quibus vita et mors, fidus et interitus, ad limtn fedenu King