Consent and settlement

The Rzeczpospolita was helpless. Its demoralised, minuscule army could not possibly take on the forces of the three powers: 20,000 Austrians in the south, 30,000 Russians in Lithuania and the centre, over 10,000 Prussians in the west and north. The tiny garrison in Elbing pulled out after token resistance. Only in the summer of 1774 did regimentary Kraszewski stand up to Prussian border forays into Wielkopolska by pulling up the new frontier markers and even attacking Prussian troops – but this was virtually the only action of its kind. ¹ Contingents of Barists maintained sporadic activity into the autumn, but, as news of the three-power agreement spread, most simply went home. There was a brief buzz of excitement in September after Gustav III, much assisted by the Russians’ diversion in Poland, sprang his monarchic coup in Stockholm, but it was insanely unrealistic to imagine it could be emulated in Warsaw. ² No one could seriously contemplate resistance, or even criticism. The printers dared not publish. ‘Our Father, who art in Vienna, Berlin and Petersburg, hallowed be thy name in those countries, secure your kingdom in our Poland, thy will be done in Austria, Brandenburg, as it is in Moscow …’ Such bitter squibs could only be repeated by word of mouth or circulated on scraps of paper. ³