Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/123

Rh for the 19th of April, 1773, according to the will of the three courts; nevertheles, in order to avoid all caue of reproach, the king, with the advice of the enate, again appeals to the guarantees of the treaty of Oliva." It is not to be doubted, that if there had been in Poland a people in exitence, as there is in Holland, to have given this amiable prince only the authority of a tadtholder, he would have aid, "I will die in the lat ditch."

Of the dimembered provinces, the Ruian, which is the larget territory, contains only one million and a half of ouls; the Autrian, which is the mot populous, contains two millions and a half; the Pruian, which is the mot commercial, commanding the navigation of the Vitula, contains only eight hundred and ixty thouand, and has given a fatal blow to the commerce of Poland, by transferring it from Dantzick to Memel and Konigburg.

The finishing troke of all remains.—

The three ambaadors, on the 13th of September, 1773, delivered, "A part of thoe cardinal laws, to the ratification of which our courts will not uffer any contradiction.

"I. The crown of Poland hall be for ever elective, and all order of ucceion procribed: any peron who hall endeavour to break this law hall be declared an enemy to his country, and liable to be punihed accordingly.

"II. Foreign candidates to the throne, being the frequent caue of troubles and diviions, hall be excluded; and it hall be enacted, that, for the future, no peron can be choen king of Poland, and great duke of Lithuania, excepting a native Pole, of noble origin, and poeing land within the kingdom. The on, "or