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that thefe conceffions are with juf. tice to be regarded not only as laws, but as parts of the great fun damental compact, upon which the union of the two nations depended. That they were then regarded as fuch, is evident from their being included among the other general and particular privileges, which were granted during that tranfac tion, and afterwards received an equal confirmation at the diet of union, held at Lublin under the fame prince in the year 1569, by which the grand dutchy of Lithuania was for ever united to the crown of Poland.

Upon the death of Sigifmund Auguftus, the Polish conftitution was entirely changed, and the nation affumed the form of a republic. His grandfather, Caffimir the Third, was the first who convened the nobility, in order to oblige them to accept the new impofitions. Sigifmund and his father ufed the fame method; but after his death the whole legislative authority fell into the hands of the nobility.

At this period it is afferted, that the Roman Catholics in the king dom did not bear a proportion in number to the Greeks and Reformed, of more than one to feven. The Grand Marshal Firely, who convened the first diet of the republic, that diet which formed its prefent model, and inade the crown elective, was a Proteftant. A perpetual peace betwixt the Greeks, the Roman Catholics, and the Proteftants, was therein established, as a fundamental law of the republic. The wars in Germany under Charles the Fifth, and in France under Catharine de Medicis, made them fenfible of the ne. ceffity they were under of tolerat

ing each other, The Catholics are faid to have been by far the weakeft, and thought themselves happy in the conceffion made to them, that the ecclefiaftical property and revenues of Catholics fhould not be given to any but the members of their own communion, in the fame manner as thofe appertaining to Greeks were to be bestowed on Greeks only. They promifed to each other mutual defence and affection, and that a difference in religion fhould never prove the cause of civil diffenfion, unanimously refolving to make an example of that perfon, who under fucha pretext should excite difturb

ance.

As this law has been repeated in all the public acts, conftitutions, and pacta conventa, from that time to the prefent, it cannot but be allowed to be a fundamental one; nor can any other law be produced, whofe fanction has been more folemnly, more conftantly, ' and more frequently repeated. However, when the Roman Catholics, after the death of Sigifmund the Third, had gained an evident fuperiority, though they did not think proper openly to controvert it, yet they fhewed a difpofition, when opportunity was favourable, to infringe it, by placing under their fignatures, falvis juribus ecclefia Roman Catholica, faving the rights of the Roman Catholic church; whereupon the Diffidents, by way of reprifal, wrote under their fignatures, falva pace inter Diffidentes, faving the peace among the Diffidents.

It appears from the infancy of the republic, that the term Di dents equally comprehended the Greeks, Catholics, Reformed, and

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Lutherans. The words of that famous conftitution which we have just mentioned, and which was paffed by the diet which formed the republic in the year 1573, are Nos qui fumus Diffidentes in religione, i. e. We who differ in religious matters. In the fame conftitution it is declared, that they will acknowledge no man for king or mafter that fhall not confirm by oath all the rights privileges, and liberties, which they now enjoy, and which are to be laid before him after his election. Particularly, he shall be bound to fwear, that he will maintain the peace among the Diffidents in points of religion." In the conftitutions of the fame diet are the following remarkable ftipulations; "We all engage, in our own names, and in the names of our fucceffors for ever, by the obligations of our oath, of our faith, of our honour, and of our confciences, to preferve peace among us who are Diffidents in religion; to fhed no blood, nor to inflict on any one the penalties of confifcation of goods, defamation, imprifonment, or exile, on account of the difference of our faith, and rites in our churches. More than that, if any one should undertake, for the above reafon, to fhed the blood of his fellow-citizens, we fhould be all obliged to oppofe him, even though he fhould fhelter himself under the pretext of a decree, or any other judicial proceeding."

It would not be eafy to produce inftances of equal moderation, in matters of religion, amongst a people who differed fo widely in their opinions on that head, as thefe we have fhewn; especially if it be

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confidered that these conftitutions were paffed by a fierce and warlike nobility, each of whom was not only a member of the general fovereignty, which they had juft taken into their own hands; but alfo looked upon himfelf, in his own particular right, as in fome degree a fovereign, as far as his eftate and power extended. We fhall pay the greater regard to the memory of thofe illuftrious Poles, if we reflect that the age they lived in was far from being a temperate one, and that moderation was but little cultivated in the most civilized and beft regulated governments in Europe: at the fame time it cannot be fufficiently lamented, that their pofterity fhould fo fatally lofe fight of the politic, humane, and noble precedent, that was fet them by their fathers.

Those who have not confidered that perverfe difpofition, by which almoft every denomination of mankind would endeavour to plunder, enflave, and perfecute every other part of their own fpecies; and who have not observed that words can always be found, when attended with power, to explain away the moft explicit fenfe, and the most indubitable rights; may well be furprised how a law, fo folemnly paffed, and fo ufeful to the whole community, could be rendered fruitlefs. A law fanctified by the most folemn acts, which the framers bound themselves and their pofterity, by the most facred oaths, to preferve inviolate to all futurity, which formed a principal part of the conftitution of the ftate, and which every king at his acceffion was fworn to obferve. Yet this law, without any material change, much less a fubverfion of

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the conftitution of the country, has been manifeftly broken through, while three of the religions, which formed the original compact, have been spoiled of their rights, liber

ties, and immunities, by the fourth; and all this outrage and wrong committed under colour and fanction of the very laws they were tearing to pieces at the inftant.

CHAP. IV.

The caufes affigned for the great fuperiority which the Roman Catholics in Poland have acquired over the Greeks and Proteftants. Account of Sigif mund the third. Treaty of Oliva. Edict against the Arians. Conftitution of 1717. Oppreffion of the Diffidents in confequence of it. Conftitution of 1736. Confederacies formed by the Diffident nobles. Declaration of the Empress of Ruia in their favour. Of the King of Prussia, &c. Malecontents. The diet meets; fome of the Members arrefted by the Ruffians. A commiffion appointed finally to fettle the affairs of the Diffidents.

IT muft appear furprifing, that the Roman Catholics, who are reprefented as having formed fo fmall a part of the whole, at the time of establishing the republic, and who, from their weaknefs and inability of defending themfelves, feemed the moft liable to oppref. fion, fhould notwithstanding become the moft numerous and powerful, and be able to tyrannize over the reft of their brethren. It is not improbable that this part of the picture has been a little overcharged by the writer from whom we derive our materials. Among the many caufes by which this perfuafion is faid to have obtained the afcendancy, and by degrees the exclufive poffeffion of government, the following feem to be the principal.

Upon the death of Sigifmund Auguftus, and the foundation of the republic, Szafraniec, a Proteftant, was propofed for King, and his acceffion wished by great numbers; but the Diffidents in general, from a grateful attachment to the Jagellonic family, preferred VOL. X.

the intereft of the Princefs Anne, fifter to the late king, and made it a rule that whatever prince was elected fhould marry her. This princefs, who had been all her life in the hands of the Romish clergy, and was violently attached to their principles, obliged Stephen Bathori, who married her, to change his religion. And what was attended with much worfe confequences, put her nephew Sigifmund, who the afterwards had intereft enough to get elected king upon the death of her husband, into the hands of the Jefuits for his education.

During the long inglorious reign of her nephew, Sigifmund the third, which lafted for near half a century, all the material interests of the nation were entirely neglected, and went accordingly to ruin. The bigotted monarch's whole time was applied to the bringing over of converts, in which he neither regarded the means ufed, nor the fincerity of thofe converted; and carried on every degree of perfecution and oppreffion against thofe, who had [B]

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honesty and refolution enough, neither to be debauched by rewards, nor compelled by threats. It is faid of this weak prince, that the converfion of a Diffident, the demolition of one of their churches, or the founding of a new college of Jefuits, were more prized by him, than the gaining of a victory, or the prefervation of a province.

That the whole courfe of his administration was fo odious, that even the Catholics, and the great Zamoifky, his protector, who had placed him on the throne, were highly incenfed at his conduct, and reproached him bitterly in public for it. That by a conftant perfeverance in this conduct, his whole reign was a continued feries of lofs and difgrace; that by it he loft the kingdom of Sweden, as well as the noble provinces of Livonia, Wallachia, and Moldavia. That the misfortunes incurred by it, were not confined to his reign, but are entailed upon the lateft pofterity; for the great revolt of the Coffacks, which gave fo irretrievable a fhock to the republic, was a confequence of it, and concerted during his life. And matters were carried to fuch a pitch at home, that a great part of the nation were at one time upon the point of dethroning him.

People who take a tranfient and diftant view of the affairs of Poland, and who, from its name and form of a republic, look upon their kings to be nearly nominal, and their power circumfcribed within very narrow limits, will be furprised how fo weak and bigotted a prince could have the power of doing fo much harm. But the Kings of Poland have ftill,

in fome refpects, very great powers, one of the principal of which, befides the dependence that is naturally created by the difpofal of governments and all offices and places of truft or emolument, is, that thefe very offices are what conftitute the fenate, none of the members of which hold by any hereditary right; fo that this body bears a more just resemblance to a king's private council and adminiftration, than to an English house of lords, to which the Polifh writers fometimes compare it. It fhould alfo be remembered, that," in the days of Sigifmund the third, the Polish nation were only newly emancipated from the government of a long line of hereditary kings, from whom he was defcended on the mother's fide, and under many of whom, they had arrived at the highest degree of fplendour and glory. The kingdom of Sweden, which he pof feffed for a part of his reign, muft have done more than contribute to dazzle the eyes of the people; and if we take all thefe caufes together, we cannot avoid fuppofing that he had very fuperior degrees of power and influence, to what have been poffeffed by later monarchs.

It is no wonder, then, that fuch a prince, during the courfe of fo long a reign, with emoluments, honours, and preferments to be. ftow in one hand, and perfecution to threaten in the other, fhould have made an infinite number of profelytes. The event was anfwerable to what might have been expected: bishops abandoned their flocks; the priefts and people were compelled to follow them. Every gentleman who embraced the

Catholic

Catholic faith, immediately demolished all the churches of the Diffidents that were built upon his eftates; the tradefmen that were fettled there difperfed themfelves to other parts, and the peafants were converted without difficulty. If the priest or any of the vaffals were first converted, they were fupported against the lord, who was compelled at length, by a variety of chicanery and vexation, either to become a convert, or to difpofe of his eftate. In this manner the Diffidents loft, during the reign of Sigifmund, upwards of an hundred churches; and the Catholics increafed to that degree, that from five only, who were members of the fenate in the beginning of it; at his death they amounted to three parts of the whole affembly.

Though the Diffidents were not uniformly oppreffed during the fucceeding reigns; yet they met with fuch difcouragements, as daily decreased their numbers; and means were at length found to keep them entirely Anno 1660 out of the fenate. By the treaty of Oliva, notwithstanding the general intention which then prevailed to deprive the Swedes of every pretence for ever again re-entering Poland; yet it is ftipulated by the fecond article, "That all the fubjects of the kingdom of Poland, of what condition or religion foever, were to enjoy for the future all the rights and privileges, as well temporal as fpiritual, which they had enjoyed before the war." This is the celebrated treaty, which we have formerly taken notice of, and which is fo often

quoted upon the prefent difputes; and it is to this treaty, that the great mediating powers became guarantees.

A fevere law was paffed in the following year, and in the fame reign of John Cafimir, againft the Arians; who were charged with blafphemy, and declared heretics; it was alfo ordained, that all profecutions against them, as being the caufe of God, fhould be de cided in the feveral courts, before all other caufes. It was at the fame time declared, that this law had not the leaft reference to the Diffidents, who were affured in the moft folemn manner, in the body of the law itfelf, that they fhould for the time to come be conti nued in the enjoyment of all their rights, employments, and honours, as before. Notwithstanding thefe exprefs ftipulations, this law has fince proved a fevere fcourge to the Dillidents; to whom the clergy have applied it in-all their fuits; efpecially during the reigns of the two Saxon kings; who, as new Catholics, affected to be very zealous to that religion, and violently attached to the clergy of it. To this very time, the trials of the Diffidents are determined ex Regiftro Arianifmi; and as a caufe of this kind is branded with the epithet of "abominable"; fo no one perfon will venture to efpoufe the part of a perfon accufed under this title.

Though the Diffidents met with various and numberlefs oppreffions and injuries, during the courfe of the laft century; yet they were still regarded only as acts of fudden violence or outrage, and acknowledged to be contrary [B] 2

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