Lietuvos istorijos institutas

The article presents personality and activities of Augustyn Middleton, nobleman from Kaunas powiat, with the main focus on assessing this person in the light of political events in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the geopolitical situation. At the centre of this research is the period from the reinstatement of the diplomatic mission of the Commonwealth in The Hague on 14 April 1790 to the end of activities of the Four-Year Sejm. The article reveals that Augustyn Middleton, assigned by Stanislaw August to the diplomatic mission of the Commonwealth in the United Provinces of the Netherlands, was the agent of the King, who had to inform the King’s cabinet on activities of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Mihał Kleofas Ogiński and to promote the reforms by the Four-Year Sejm in the foreign press thus shaping a positive public opinion in Western Europe regarding changes in Poland and Lithuania. Due to benevolent circumstances A. Middleton was able to reach the rank of embassy resident, however the horizons of his diplomatic career were limited by available finances. Political views of A. Middleton reflected aims declared by the fraction of Stanislaw August’s court: to create a strong and prospering monarchy, hoping that the state will be able to regain its glorious past. A. Middleton promoted constitutional monarchy, inheritable throne, regulation of activities of the Sejm and the dietines (sejmiki), granting of political rights to townspeople, and economic development of the country. While supporting the idea of a centralized state, A. Middleton did not reflect on the rights of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or the topic of a binary state. In assessing economic changes in Europe A. Middleton opposed the physiocrats, emphasizing that the most powerful form of capital comes not from agriculture but from banking. However, he was not afraid to admit that his knowledge of economics was not sufficient to explain the processes of financial capital. Ideas of religious tolerance, promoted by A. Middleton, his cosmopolite view of collaboration between states and nations, active interest in political and social transformations in Europe through anonymous polemical publications in foreign press on the topics of revolution allow for bringing the nobleman from Kaunas powiat A. Middleton into the circle of yet unknown people of the Enlightenment.

The article, which retrospectively covers the publication of sources of the 18th century in Lithuania in the period from the 1910s to present, aims at highlighting the main groups of published sources and discussing problems faced by publishers of texts in other languages. The first half of the 20th century should be considered the beginning of the publication of sources referring to the 18th century. In the said period, the focus lay on sources in the Lithuanian language. Systematic issuing of sources of the 18th century drawn up in other languages (Latin, Ruthenian, Polish and German) was initiated only in the 1950s. Most sources of the 18th century appeared in serial publications. Objectives set by each series of sources reflected on the selection of external sources for publication and the mode of their preparation for printing (facsimile edition, publication in the original language, publication of translation, etc.). In the Soviet times series of source publications were mostly based on the inter-institutional principle and were organized around a certain publishing house, however, the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, the major publication works have been pursued in academic institutes. Publication of sources reflects the mission and strategic objectives of a certain academic institution. Universities, however, play only a minor role in source publication. Documents and other narrative sources have hitherto been prepared for publication with no obligation to comply with certain unanimous system of source preparation or unified principles of their publication. Neither obligatory nor recommendatory instructions for the preparation for publication of a source in another language have been offered. Both – different historiographical schools, their attitude and traditions, character of published sources and the fact that sources are prepared and published by representatives of different fields of science (philology, history, philosophy, art criticism, musicology) with individual approach to the value produced by the source and at times little willingness to cooperate, are accountable for the situation. In each situation different principles of source publication apply which, subject to the nature of the source, requirements posed to the publication and attitude of the editor, can vary even when publishing books in one series. Analysis of published sources allows for the distinguishing of three main trends in the preparation of texts of the 18th century in the Polish language: 1) graphic representation of the authentic source; 2) modernization of the published texts through “correction” of “mistakes”, usage of upper and lower case letters in accordance with the rules of orthography of the contemporary Polish language and introduction of punctuation marks to facilitate the understanding of at times particularly lengthy sentences of the published text, etc.; 3) opting for the “golden mean” with a view to combine both methods of text representation. All these modes of publishing have certain advantages and disadvantages. The most urgent problem is “modernization” of the text when speaking about the preparation for publication of written records made in the Lithuanian territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is obvious that the time has come to make a decision with regard to the drafting of new publication principles to a greater extent adapted to the Lithuanian contexts, designed to preserve the specificity of texts created in Lithuania and facilitate the analysis of the relics of the Lithuanian language preserved in Polish writings.