Untitled - 24grammata.com

OF THE EEFOEMATION. 275very dangerous The two gift.parties hated while they tolerated each other ;and there only wanted a spark to setmen's passion on fire, and kindle such a flame as could beextinguished only under the ruins of the state.This sparkfellamongst them when Charles XIL, amonarch of the Lutheran persuasion, invaded Poland as aconqueror, and formed a party in the country for the advancement of his own ambitious designs. Although thisfaction consisted in a small part only of Dissenters, it wassufficient that any of them supported it, to make their opponents consider the name of Dissenter synonymous withthat of a partisan of Sweden; and the more confined theirviews,the more violent became the mutual hatred of theparties, which naturally pressed with greater force upon thesupporters of Charles XIL, as soon as he became incapableof defending them.After the diet in the year 1717, when the Dissenters werefirst subjected to a spoliation of their public rights, the precedent was never left unemployed, even when there couldbe no longer question of a Swedish party in the state.Theoppression of the Dissenters now became a political maxim ;and, under the skilful direction of the Jesuits, it was pursuedso far as to leave them nothing besides the memory oftheir former advantages, except fruitless petitions andcomplaints.Thus the storm was prepared here only after it had subsided in other quarters ;and the consequences were easilyto be foreseen. In a country, the constitution and internalfeuds of which had for a long time opened the way toforeign interference, these religiouscontests could not failto be of fatal effect as soon as any neighbouring powerlearnt how to employ them. Catharine II. soon perceivedWie advantages which she might derive from them; andunder the pretextof protectingthe Dissenters laid thefoundation (1766) of the Russian power in Poland.Shall I describe the further series of events, the consecutive scenes of that national tragedy? Shall I recall themadness of the civil war, the insolence of the oppressor, theViolation of the rights of the people,the persecution^ suchas no nation has endured since the fall of Carthage? Thecabinets of Europe have already too sore a testimony againstT 2