[Sidenote:  Saxony.]

Poland, from one cause or other, is always unquiet.  The new Constitution only serves to supply that restless people with new means, at least new modes, of cherishing their turbulent disposition.  The bottom of the character is the same.  It is a great question, whether the joining that crown with the Electorate of Saxony will contribute most to strengthen the royal authority of Poland or to shake the ducal in Saxony.  The Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, six sevenths at the very least, Protestants.  He must continue a Catholic, according to the Polish law, if he accepts that crown.  The pride of the Saxons, formerly flattered by having a crown in the house of their prince, though an honor which cost them dear,—­the German probity, fidelity, and loyalty,—­the weight of the Constitution of the Empire under the Treaty of Westphalia,—­the good temper and good-nature of the princes of the House of Saxony, had formerly removed from the people all apprehension with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient, and even affectionate.  The Seven Years’ War made some change in the minds of the Saxons.  They did not, I believe, regret the loss of what might be considered almost as the succession to the crown of Poland, the possession of which, by annexing them to a foreign interest, had often obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the support of which that foreign interest afforded no proportionable strength.  In this very delicate situation of their political interests, the speculations of the French and German Economists, and the cabals, and the secret, as well as public doctrines of the Illuminatenorden, and Freemasons, have made a considerable progress in that country; and a turbulent spirit, under color of religion, but in reality arising from the French rights of man, has already shown itself, and is ready on every occasion to blaze out.

The present Elector is a prince of a safe and quiet temper, of great prudence and goodness.  He knows, that, in the actual state of things, not the power and respect belonging to sovereigns, but their very existence, depends on a reasonable frugality.  It is very certain that not one sovereign in Europe can either promise for the continuance of his authority in a state of indigence and insolvency, or dares to venture on a new imposition to relieve himself.  Without abandoning wholly the ancient magnificence of his court, the Elector has conducted his affairs with infinitely more economy than any of his predecessors, so as to restore his finances beyond what was thought possible from the state in which the Seven Years’ War had left Saxony.  Saxony, during the whole of that dreadful period, having been in the hands of an exasperated enemy, rigorous by resentment, by nature, and by necessity, was obliged to bear in a manner the whole burden of the war; in the intervals when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country were not better treated.