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BIOGRAPHICAL, LITERARY, AND SCIENTIFIC

MAGAZINE

FOR

JULY 1799.

CONDUCTED BY

ROBERT BISSET, LL. D.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF OTHER LITERARY GENTLEMEN,

THIS NUMBER IS EMBELLISHED WITH A PORTRAIT OF

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE AMERICAN FORCES, AND LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY

G. CAWTHORN, BRITISH LIBRARY, NO. 132, STRAND: SOLD ALSO BY MESSRS. RICHARDSON, ROYAL-EXCHANGE; W. WEST PATERNOSTERBOW; J. HATCHARD AND J. WRIGHT, PICCADILLY; P. HILL, EDINBURGH;

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TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS,

THE Editor was very sorry to observe, when it was too late, that a Print very unworthy of the subject was prefixed to the last Number of the Maga zine. He had not considered that as peculiarly in his department; but will in future himself inspect the Portraits, so as to prevent the recurrence of such an error, especially in cases in which he has seen the original. A Portrait of Mr. Pitt, PROPERLY executed, will accompany one of the Numbers before the volume is completed.

Several Poetical articles have been received, and are under consideration. Some of them are objectionable merely on account of their extreme length. To this objection our Poetical Correspondents will, we hope, in future attend.

J. L. G. is requested to favour the Printer with an interview respecting the production he left for insertion.

THE LIFE

OF

STANISLAUS AUGUSTUS PONIATOWSKY,*

LATE KING OF POLAND.

PONIATOWSKY, who was doomed to be the last monarch of a kingdom once extensive, and possessing in soil and productions the materials of commerce and wealth, but now blotted out from the map of Europe, was born in the year 1732. His father, Count Ponia towsky, Colonel of the Swedish Guards of Stanislaus, King of Poland, was a man of distinguished intrepidity and uncommon merit. Cool and undisturbed in the time of danger, he was able to perceive in what way his courage could operate most usefully. When Charles XII. was desperately wounded at the battle of Pultowa, the prowess of Poniatowsky carried him off from the field of battle in the face of the enemy. His son inherited his great qualities, and was, moreover, of a majestic height, graceful figure, expressive and piercing eyes, with strong parts, improved by education, endowed with many accomplishments, and a lover of the arts and sciences. In his early youth he made a tour through Germany and France. At Paris his success was not unpropitious; there the friendship of the Swedish Ambassador procured him distinguished connections; but his mother, aprehensive of dangerous consequences from the seductive pleasures of that capital, ordered him by letter to leave the city. Poniatowsky quitted France, and went to England, where he met with Wr. Williams, whom he had known at the court of Warsaw, and who, being then named by the Court of St. James's Ambassador to Petersburg, took the young gentleman with him. Without having an official appointment that attached him to the embassy, the youthful Polonese wrote in the Ambassador's office, and waited upon him as his Secretary. He resolved at first to apply himself only to diplomatic affairs; but a taste for dissipation, increased by long indulgence, his youth, and seducing opportunities daily thrown in his way, soon brought him back captive to the allurements of pleasure. He was lively, elegant, witty, sure of advancement in the fashionable world. The

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The Portrait of this Sovereign was given in the Second Number.

impression he made upon the heart of Catharine, then Grand Duchess of Russia, could not escape his observation.

Bold almost to temerity, Poniatowsky, notwithstanding, viewed the Grand Duchess with a degree of fear; her rank intimidated his approaches; and he felt a yoke from the observation of her numerous courtiers. At first expressive glances superseded the use of language; to these silent, but not unmeaning mysteries, succeeded a developement, in which the means of satisfying their mutual inclinations was the chief object of solicitude. He succeeded Soltikoff as the favourite of Catharine:

Elizabeth, then reigning Empress of Russia, and aunt to Catharine's husband, her heir-apparent, was soon informed of this intrigue. The Empress disliked her nephew; she was careless of her. adopted niece's honour: her regard for the morals of others did not, however, in general exceed the severity she exercised upon her own she was always averse to inflict punishment; but an extreme facility, that submitted to the guidance of courtly friends, often seduced her feelings, and substituted a rigour opposite to the natural principles of her heart. She ordered Poniatowsky to quit Russia immediately. He was obedient to her command.

The Chancellor Bestuscheff had been instrumental to the removal of Soltikoff, and thereby displeased the Grand Duchess; but, as he was very desirous to establish himself in the favour of that Princess, and knew nothing would atone to her for the loss of her lover but the substitution of another, he exerted himself to discover one that he believed would be agreeable.. Poniatowsky, who was tall, wellmade, and very muscular, he doubted not would perfectly suit the taste of her Highness. After the youth had been obliged to leave Russia, in consequence of his success, the Chancellor endeavouted to procure his return to Petersburgh. He applied to the Count de Bruhl, Prime-minister to the King of Poland, to invest him with a character that would ensure his reception. Bruhl, who was greatly devoted to the Russian Chancellor, procured to Poniatowsky the a pointment of Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic and the King of Poland to the Court of the Empress Elizabeth. Having patronized Poniatowsky, Bruhl neglected nothing that could tend successfully to approve his choice. He was informed of the straitened state to which the Russian Court, by affecting Asiatic luxury, had reduced the finances. He was not ignorant of the Empress's prodigality towards her favourites, and the instigations to sumptuous and whimsical feasts, paid for out of the money which

should have defrayed the necessary expences of the Empire: Le knew, at the same time, that the Grand Duke and his Consort languished under a penurious establishment, disgraceful to their exalted situation. He remitted, then, to Poniatowsky, six thousand ducats, to enable him on emergencies to assist the royal pair; and, by this generosity, to conciliate their cordial affection. Of this Count's advice and benevolent intentions Poniatowsky made a skilful use. In addition to his conquest over the Princess's heart, he became a distinguished favourite with her husband. The Court of Russia was then extremely profligate. The Empress Elizabeth was abandoned to debauchery. The Grand Duchess, blinded by passion for her new lover, and regardless of appearances, imitated her aunt's irregularities. Poniatowsky never quitted Catharine; to him her days, her whole nights were consecrated; and of this intercourse so little mystery was made, that to the intimacy with her lover was ascribed her pregnancy, again visible. The Grand Duchess was soon after delivered of the Princess Anne, who died almost in the birth. The Grand Duke was at last informed of his wife's affection for the Pole, and furnished with such proofs of her criminal intercouse as he could not doubt. He learned at the same time that the Chancellor had been a very active promoter of this intrigue. Peter was overwhelmed with astonishment. He deplored his misfortune and imprudence... His wonted consideration and respect for the Grand Duchess, which he had hitherto preserved, now forsook him. He interdicted her presence to Poniatowsky. He then waited upon the Empress, from whom he demanded satisfaction for his injured honour. He even told Elizabeth that the Chancellor had not only favoured his wife's deportment, but in many instances betrayed the very confidence of her Majesty. The Empress, affected with her nephew's grief, and indignant at the perfidy of Bestuscheff, immes diately gave an order for his arrest. The Chancellor was at once deprived of this situation, judged, declared guilty of high treason, and condemned to lose his head; but Elizabeth contented herself with exiling him to Siberia. Thus, on a sudden, from the pinnacle of power to the abyss of slavery, fell the great Chancellor Bestuscheffaca mansats whose word the Russian Empire trembled, and whose influence governed the fate of a great part of Europe. Far as we are from being the advocates of slavery, we think that when a Chancellor descended to be a pimp, he underwent a voluntary de-^^ gradation much greater than any to which he could be subjected by others.

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