In the year following, 1668, Cafimir, weary of the fatigues of government, or more probably disgusted with the remonftrances of Polish freedom, and that general diflatisfaction which his government gave, determined to abdicate the crown, and retire to an abbey in France. As his Speech to the Diet, before his abdication, and relative to it, is fomewhat extraordinary, we fhall give it our Readers: though poffibly it is no more the Speech of Cafimir, than Livy's Speeches were thofe of the heroes to whom he ascribes them.

People of Poland!

my

It is now two hundred and eighty years that you have • been governed by my family. The reign of ancestors is paft, and mine is just going to expire. Fatigued by the labours of war, the cares of the cabinet, and the weight of age; oppreffed with the burdens and follicitudes of a reign of twenty-one years, I, your King and Father, return into your hands, what the world efteems above all things, a • Crown; and chufe for my throne fix feet of earth, where I fhall fleep in peace with my fathers. When you fhew my tomb to your children, tell them that I was the foremost in battle, and the last in retreat; that I renounced regal grandeur for the good of my country, and reftored my fceptre to those who gave it me. It was your affection for me that exalted me to the highest rank, and it is my affection for you that makes me quit it. Many of my predeceffors have tranfmitted the fceptre to their children or brothers; and I deliver it to my country, whofe child and father I have been and from this moment I defcend from the pinnacle of greatness to mix with the inferior throng; from a ruler, I become a fubject; from your King, your fellow citizen, and leave my throne to whoever you fhall think worthy to fill it. The Republic will make a good choice, and be bleffed with profperity, if Heaven liftens to the prayers I fhall put up in the folitude to which I am retiring. No< thing remains but that I thank the Republic for all the favours it has done me, for all the advice it has given me, for all the loyalty it has fhewn me; and if, contrary to my intention, I have had the unhappiness of difpleafing any, I defire them to impute it to the misfortune of the times, or to fate, and to forgive me, as I forgive all who may havẽ • offended me. I bid you all adieu, and bear all adieu, and bear you all in my affections. Distance of place may feparate me from the Republic, but my heart fhall always be with that affectionate parent; and I ordain that my afhes be depofited in her bofom.'

Such was the abdicating fpeech of Cafimir; but when he faid his heart fhould always be with the Republic of Poland, he did not confider what future attachments it might have. For afterwards, when he retired into France, became prior of two abbies, and was privately married to a washer-woman, at his death he bequeathed his heart to France, and his body only to Poland.

Cafimir was fucceeded in the Kingdom of Poland by the still weaker and more unfortunate Michael. The Poles finding this prince unfit to govern, formed a confederacy to depofe him. In this confederacy were the principal nobility, and among the reft Sobieski. The King, however, preferved a party in his favour among the equeftrian, or lower order of nobility, upon the strength of which he ventured to profcribe all those who were of the confederacy; and a price was fet on the head of Sobieski. But our Hero being at the head of the veteran army, who regarded him much more than they did the King, was the lefs expofed to danger.

During thefe unhappy divifions in Poland, the Turks and Tartars invaded that country with two formidable armies. Upon this appearance of public danger, Sobieski, like a truly great man, forgot all civil animofity, and turned his attention folely to the defence of his country, and of that King who had offered a price for his life. The Tartarian army, which confifted of 130,000 men, and was divided into three columns, he totally routed in three feveral battles. After this he would probably have ferved the Turks in the fame manner, had not the mean-fpirited Michael, who all this while had not once moved against the enemy, bafely purchafed a peace by making himself and his country the flaves of the Porte. But notwithstanding the pufillanimity of their King, the hearts of the Poles were indignant of the difgrace, and particularly the foul of Sobieski could not bear it. Before the first payment of tribute was made, he marched at the head of the Poles against the Turkish army, which were encamped on the frontiers of Poland, at Choczin. The Turkish army confifted of 80,000, and that of Sobiefki of little more than half that number. He nevertheless gave them a total overthrow, and gnalized himself as much by the perfonal courage of a private foldier, as by the skill and conduct of a commander.

Upon the death of Michael, which happened the day before the battle of Choczin, the Republic of Poland turned its eyes on Sobieski, and rewarded his extraordinary merit with the Kingdom. Our Hiftorian gives us an Extract from a Dif

courfe,

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courfe, which, on this occafion, was delivered by way of Coronation Sermon, by the Palatine of Culm. As a curiofity it may poffibly entertain our Readers, though it fhould give them no very favourable idea of Polish Oratory.

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As St. John antiently prepared the way before the Meffias, fo the Republic, by delivering the diploma of Royalty to John Sobieski, prepares the way before her Lord, whofe name is John. The Virgin Mary bleffed John in his mother's womb, and Queen Louifa Maria, wife of Cafimir, heaped bleffings upon King John, by marrying him to Mary D'Arguien, that ocean of angelical qualities. The Republic was deceived in the former election, by chufing Michael; but it now corrects that error by taking John. John is a name of grace which will re-eftablish military discipline, and the fortune of Poland. The Moldavians and Walachians have paid homage to John, and taught us to worship him ourfelves as the faviour of all Christendom. The fun generally appears when the clouds are gone, but frequently produces others. The new fun which rifes in our horizon promises us bread, and not thunder. We have "waited for the holy fpirit on the feaft of Pentecoft, and have received him in the perfon of fohn. On the fame day that the church celebrates the feftival of God our Saviour, concealed under the form of bread, behold we chufe ourselves < another Saviour under the figure of a man. It was on a Saturday, the eve of the fcaft of the Trinity, that we all concurred in electing John, who is alfo Trinity himself, being our Son, our Father, and our King. It is not merely by chance that the election was delayed to the time of thefe great feftivals. That of the Trinity indicates that the family of John will reign at least three hundred years: God grant it may be three thoufand! It is the feed of Jacob which fhall never be extinct, but be for ever a bleffing to the Republic, &c.' This Preacher, however, was not a true Prophet.

When John was elected to the throne of Poland, he did not fit down to enjoy the delights of regal luxury and magnificence; his thoughts feemed wholly bent on redeeming the honour and antient dominions of his country. Instead, therefore, of waiting for the pomp of a coronation, he marched

It appears, however, that when Religion is not concerned, the Poles make no contemptible figure in Oratory; particularly in their speeches in defence of their Liberties, which are animated with a noble fpirit.

his army into the Ukraine, with a design to recover it; which he would probably have effected, had he not been deferted by the Lithuanian troops..

The defperate fituation he was in at Zurawno, where he was blocked up by an army of 200,000 Turks and Tartars, proved him in the event no lefs a politician than a hero. Our Hiftorian has mentioned feveral reafons that might incline the Turkish General to peace; but as none of them seem to be fufficiently weighty, there might probably be fome particular reafons, the effect of John's policy, that are not known,

In the behaviour of the Palatine of Culm, who went as Ambaffador to the Porte to ratify this peace, we have a curious inftance of the vanity and oftentation of the Polish nobility. He ordered his horfes to be fhod with filver, and the fhoes to be flightly fastened with two nails, that in going to the Vizir's palace they might be loft and picked up by the gaping mob. One of these fhoes being brought to the Vizir, This infidel (faid he) has fhoes of filver, but a head of lead; fince being fent bither by an indigent Republic, he does not make a better use of his money. The peace that was now confirmed continued for some years, and John enjoyed the fruits of his military toils in quiet on the throne.

Book V. page 276, the Abbé regales us with the ftory of a Ghoft. In 1681, "while the Diet was fitting, there happened an event which would be unworthy of the gravity of hiftory, if it were not connected with public, affairs. In the province of Volbinia, a Ghoft that was faid to appear in the houfe of a Polish nobleman, made fuch a noife as echoed over all the neighbouring provinces. The dead man faid many things that affected the reputation of the living and the credit of the government. He even went fo far as to or der, in the name of God, fome things to be done which dif pleafed the King. The Jefuit Grievoz, chaplain to the Grand General, attefted the reality of the Apparition; but the King difpatched to the place an intelligent officer of the army, who had fome difficulty to perfuade himself, that the irre vocable laws of the other world were fufpended merely to frighten the inhabitants of this. The affair turned out, as it always does, to be a meer comedy, which however ended tragically when the commiffioner came to make his report. The King was at that inftant furrounded with courtiers, and his confeffor, Pikarfki, another Jefuit, who had already had the direction of the confciences of two, Kings, ftanding next him, Every one liftened attentively to the hiftory and contrivance

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of

of the trick. At the unravelling of the plot, the King cafting an angry look at the manager of his confcience, addreffed him in these words: Well, what does your raftal, Gnievofz, fay to that? The director, who preached up patience and Chriftian refolution to every one else, was himself fo ftruck with this blow, that he survived it only eight days.'

In 1683 Mahomet IV. meditated the conqueft of the western empire. Leopold, then Emperor, an unwarlike prince, thought it neceffary to ftrengthen his hands, by a treaty, offenfive and defenfive, with John. The Poles having enjoyed peace upwards of fix years, the wounds they had received from the Turks and Tartars were pretty well healed; but it was cer tainly imprudent for them to break that peace, and expofe themselves again to the ravages of these barbarians. Leopold, however, prevailed with John, by a motive which it was diffi→ cult for human nature to withstand. He promifed him an Archduchefs for his fon Prince James, and through his influ ence, to continue his family on the throne of Poland, by he+ reditary fucceffion. If John, as his Hiftorian feems to think, was actually induced by these motives to break with the Porte, he acted a faithlefs part with refpect to his Kingdom, and infringed his elective oath, which was, that he should not take even the most distant ftep towards the appointment of his fucceffor. This charge his Hiftorian takes no notice of, being, like other Encomiafts, induftrious only to difplay the fair fide of his hero's character. But however this might be, John certainly deferved the highest acknowlegements both from the Emperor and the whole Chriftian world, when, before the gates of Vienna, he routed the whole Ottoman army, confifting of more than 200,000 men. Before this victory, Vienna had been reduced to the utmost diftrefs; and Leopold, who, with his whole family, had filed out of it, was every hour in uncertainty whether his reign were not at an end. The Reader will naturally anticipate the Emperor's gratitude to his preferver, and will read with indignation the following account of it:

"The question was, Whether an elective King had ever been prefent with an Emperor, and in what manner he had been received? The Duke of Lorrain, who liftened only to the voice of gratitude, anfwered, With open arms, if he has preferved the empire. The Emperor was attentive only to his imperial dignity, and gave John to understand that he would not give him his hand, which was the reception the King of Poland expected in quality of a fovereign prince. After much cavilling,

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