The Virginia Gazette

The declaration in favour of the Dissidents which the Empress of Russia has ordered her Ministers to present at the Courts where they respectively reside, begins thus:

"The Empress has spared no pains to prevent the present critical situation of the Republick of Poland, through the bad effects of the oppression which the Dissidents have so long suffered from their countrymen. In the steps which her Imperial Majesty has taken to prevent a disagreeable rupture between two parts of the nation, equal in their rights, yet where the one, being superiour to the other in number, have proceeded so far, by repeated acts of an abused authority, as to deprive them of all the advantages of citizens, and to reduce them to a state of servitude, it is easy to perceive that the character of neighbour and friend, always preponderating with the Empress, leaves but little room for that of guarantee of treaties; and that methods of mildness and conciliation have always appeared to her preferable to the strict and rigorous executions of the engagements of her Crown."

The Dissidents, at the conclusion of their declaration, express themselves as follows: "We protest before the Judge of judges, who knows our grief, our innocence, and the purity of our hearts, that we have no intention to do any thing to the detriment of the Roman Catholick religion; and that, as a proof of our fidelity towards the King, our love for our country, and our desire to support the general liberty, we are ready to sacrifice our fortunes, and our lives, even to the last drop of our blood."