PARTITION OF POLAND--DEATH OF CATHERINE European diplomacy at this period was centered about the perishing state of Poland.

That kingdom, once so powerful, was becoming every year more enfeebled.
It was a defective social organization and an arrogant nobility that ruined Poland.

There existed only two classes--nobles and serfs.

The business and trade of the state were in the hands of Germans and Jews, and there existed no national or middle class in which must reside the life of a modern state.

In other words, Poland was patriarchal and mediaeval.