Preparations
Preparations for the Sejm were not easy. Bishops Krasiński and Kajetan Sołtyk argued vocally against it. At least 32 sejmiks (regional parliaments) that were to elect deputies to it were disrupted and eventually less than half of the regular number of representatives - only about 102-111 (sources vary) deputies, the lowest number in the history of the Commonwealth - arrived in Warsaw, where they were joined by about 36 Senators and Ministers. Most of the deputies from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania did not attend this Sejm.
Russia was represented by Otto von Stackelberg, Prussia by Gedeon Benoit and Austria by Karl Reviczky.
Read more about this topic: Partition Sejm
Famous quotes containing the word preparations:
“The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
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—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)