Sprawa polska jako argument polityczny. Między moralnością a interesem w brytyjskim dyskursie parlamentarnym lat 1792-1798 .......... 43

THE POLISH QUESTION AS A POLITICAL ARGUMENT: BETWEEN MORALITY AND INTEREST IN BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY DISCOURSE, 1792–1798

The article examines the role of the “Polish question” in British parliamentary discourse between 1792 and 1798. It focuses on representations of Poland and the partitions of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth in debates concerning the war against revolutionary France, the European balance of power, and the principles of British foreign policy. The article shows that references to Poland functioned primarily as an argumentative instrument in discussions centred on other political issues: strategy towards France, the conduct of Russia and Prussia, opposition criticism of the government, and disputes over the relationship between morality and state interest in international politics. In Edmund Burke’s writings and speeches, the partitions appeared as a violation of the law of nations, an act of violence against a weaker state, and a symptom of the crisis of the European political order. Charles James Fox used the Polish question to challenge the consistency of British policy towards France and the partitioning powers. William Pitt the Younger and George Canning, by contrast, interpreted the Polish question mainly in strategic terms, subordinating moral condemnation of the partitions to state interest and the need to continue the war against France. The analysis of Benjamin Vaughan’s writings and George III’s memorandum shows, in turn, that Poland was also perceived as an element of the European balance of power and as an example of the mechanisms of great-power politics. The article argues that the image of Poland in late eighteenth-century British political discourse was shaped by the tension between moral condemnation of the partitions, pragmatic political calculation, and concern for the stability of the European international order.