THE SAXON ERA 385packing cases to St. Petersburg where in due course it was joined by half a mil-
lion more volumes taken from other Polish libraries. Modern diplomacy has
failed to recover any significant part of the spoils. Modern visitors to the Soviet
state libraries in Leningrad are not usually told of their true origins.^17
The death of Augustus III on 5 October 1763 brought the Saxon Era in the
Republic to its natural term. There was no question of electing his son,
Friedrich-Christian. This time the Russians had plans of their own. Catherine II
was intent on reforming her Polish protectorate in her own image. In this, she
was bound to compete with the Polish reformers, and in the end, if she persisted,
to provoke conflict. Thus, after thirty years of somnolent sclerosis, the body
politic of the Republic was about to be thrown into violent convulsions. To
many who lived through the era of the Partitions, the 'good old Saxon days'
must surely have been remembered with a touch of regret.