d consequent rupture between the two states.
Russia sacrificed for a time the possession of the territory which
extends from the fertile town of Stoika to the river Tecmine, and from
the right bank of the Dnieper, fifty versts in breadth along the
frontiers of Poland. There is no idea of cession here on the part of
Russia; it is a pledge (gage) which she advances for the solidity of the
peace, _which ought to be returned to her when the object of it is
effected_. This is the only reasonable construction which can be put
upon the stipulation, '_until it has been otherwise amicably settled_.'
Russia is not to be a loser because the confusion of the internal
affairs of Poland has never allowed that country to come to a definite
agreement on this subject, notwithstanding the requests of Russia."

It does not demand much acumen to unveil such impudent sophistry as
this. The assertion that the arrangement was only provisional and
temporary is false; the treaty indeed left the detail of the boundary
line to be drawn out by commissioners, as must always be the case in
arrangements of this kind, and as was meant to be implied by the words
which the Russian minister transforms into "_until it has been otherwise
amicably arranged_."

Such was the weak manner in which the Russian diplomatists imagined to
deceive Europe; their defence indeed is as triumphant a proof of the
badness of their cause as the most earnest friend of Poland could
desire. Our surprise may well be excited at the weakness of the
argument, particularly when we remember that Catharine's servants had
long been trained in glossing over the basest and most shameful
transactions. "The ministers of St. Petersburg," said a contemporary
writer, "are accustomed to appear without blushing at the tribunal of
the public in defence of any cause; the death of Peter and assassination
of Prince John inured them to it."

Such a work hardly requires refutation. Every sophism and every
falsehood is a damning argument against the Russian cause. Truth, in
fact, is outraged in every page of the writing; and one striking
instance will suffice. Catharine states that the Polish Government would
never make any arrangement about the frontier; but the fact is that even
as late as 1764 commissioners were appointed at the diet of coronation
for this very purpose, but the Russians refused to nominate theirs;
again in 1766, when Count Rzewinski, Polish ambassador to St.
Petersburg, made a s