Meanwhile Poland by a heroic effort converted herself in self-defence into a hereditary constitutional monarchy on the model of England.

Prussia, playing the part of Judas, pretended to welcome these reforms at first and lent the Poles its encouragement; but when Russia took up arms on behalf of the Polish reactionary party, and the country turned to Prussia to aid it in defending the constitution, the treacherous Frederick William not only declined to do so, but began to send his troops to occupy Polish territory.

The upshot was the further dismemberment of Poland known as the Second Partition (1793).

"No sophistry in the world," writes Mr.Nisbet Bain, "can extenuate the villainy of the Second Partition.

The theft of territory is its least offensive feature.