The first division was, besides, only a beginning; some degree of moderation was preserved, and Poland was only mutilated; it was not destroyed.  The case was not entirely new, nor without example.

The second and last division took place at a time when the nations whose interest it was, and whose wish it might have been to interfere, had not the means of doing so.  It was when the republican frenzy in France was at its most desperate height, and whom =sic= the whole of civilized Europe appeared to be in danger.

There is one more excuse to be found.  The aspect of affairs in Poland resembled, with regard to its revolutions, those of France so much, that those, who at another time would have probably interfered, were rather inclined to co-operate in stifling a rising flame in the north, similar to that which had endangered the whole of the south of Europe.

In all this, the thing the most difficult to be accounted for, is the conduct of the Polish nation; but an inquiry into the causes of that would be quite foreign to the present subject:  this is, however, an instance of the danger arising from not keeping pace with other nations [end of page #77] in those arts of government, and internal policy, which constitute the power of nations in the general order of things, whatever that may be.

Although we have seldom found intestine divisions carried to so blameable a length in any other nation that was not corrupt in itself, yet, it is clear, that the influence obtained by the wealth of its neighbours was at the bottom of those highly blameable, and dreadfully fatal divisions.

When aggrandisement is the aim of modern states, there will not now be any difficulty of pleading example; and there is one of those very powers that on this occasion participated in the division which has all the seeds of discord in itself that brought on the ruin of the Polish empire.  That power has already felt the effect of example; and, though it may repine, it cannot complain, as it might otherwise have done; or if it does, it cannot expect equal commiseration.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE
THE RISE AND FALL OF NATIONS.

In the chart, at the beginning of the work, the lines, from top to bottom, represent the division of time into centuries, each indicating the year, marked under and above it, in the same way that has been adopted in Dr. Priestley’s Chart of Universal History, in works of chronology, and in statements of commerce and finance.

The countries that have flourished, whether by commerce, or any other means are supposed to be represented by the parallel spaces from right to left, according to the names written on the right hand.

The rise of the black part, something like a distant range of low mountains, shews at what periods the country was great; when its greatness began and when it ended.  This plan would be unexceptionally correct, if the materials for it could be procured; but if they were, it would not lead to any very different conclusion from what it does in its present state.  The times, when the elevation began, and its duration are exact.  The rises and falls are, as nearly as I am able, estimated from existing documents.