Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/149

Rh having utterly drained the resources of this family, and that, so far from being able to make advances in money, they could not find the means of meeting their own liabilities.

“I need not describe the character of the King of Poland, for who can know him better than the Russian Cabinet? This prince, well informed, and even learned, possessed all the advantages that render a private individual amiable; he would even have governed tolerably a monarchy already consolidated and peaceful; but never was a prince less fit to be at the head of a nation plunged in anarchy, and whose annihilation was sworn by the three most formidable powers in Europe. Great character, and undaunted courage alone could have saved Poland. Stanislaus-Augustus had neither of them. More vain than ambitious, he preferred being praised by travellers and newspaper editors to leaving a name in history. Timid and indolent, the least threat of Russia caused him to abandon views the most beneficial to his country. At the time of the first partition, he made