tive. XVII. 1794. 19. Un CHAP. nobles; but all their attempts proved ineffectual. A race of monarchs, whose succession was frequently interrupted, and their authority always contested, could not carry on Crown was any steady or consistent plan of government; while, unlike always elec- all other states, it was the people alone who there maintained a systematic and uniform line of conduct. happily it was systematic only in absurdity, uniform in the production of ruin. England can have no difficulty in understanding its condition, for it was that of Ireland, with all its passions and none of its external control. The crown of Poland, though enjoyed long by the great families of the Jagellons and the Piasts, has always been elective. The king possessed the disposal of all offices in the republic; and a principal part of his duty consisted in going from province to province to administer justice in person. "By my faith!" said Henry of Valois, when elected to the throne, "these Poles have made me nothing but a judge!" But the nobility themselves carried into execution all his sentences by their own armed force. The command of the troops was not in general conferred upon the sovereign; and as there never was any considerable standing army in the service of the republic, the military force of the throne was altogether nugatory. Poland affords the most decisive demonstration that the chief evil of an elective monarchy, and that which has always made it so calamitous where it has prevailed, is to be found, not in the contests for the crown, which may 1 Salv. i. 72, be transient, but in the prostration of its power, which is i. 17, 18, 19. lasting, and renders the protection of a stable government unknown in the state.1 128. Rulh. 20. semblies of But the insurmountable evil, which in every age has General As opposed the formation of a regular government in this the people, unhappy country, was the privilege, too firmly established and the libe- to be ever shaken, which all the citizens had, of assembling together to deliberate on the affairs of the state, and of any one interposing a direct negative on the most important resolutions. So far from adopting the prudent rum veto. - XVII. 1794. maxim of all regular governments, that a civil war is the CHAP. greatest of evils, they have by this institution given to their insurrections a legal form. From generation to generation the maxim has been handed down by the Poles "Burn your houses, and wander over the country with your arms in your hands, rather than submit to the smallest infringement on your liberties." These assemblies, when once met, united in themselves the powers of all the magistrates; they were to that republic what the dictatorship was to ancient Rome. A Pole, compelled to submit to a plurality of suffrages, would have considered himself subjected to the most grievous despotism; and consequently no resolution of the diet was binding, unless it was unanimously agreed to by all the citizens. Any citizen, by the privilege of the liberum veto, had the power of dissolving the most numerous of these assemblies, or negativing their most important acts; and although the Poles were fully sensible of the ruinous nature of this privilege, and pursued with eternal maledictions the individual who exercised it, yet they never could be pre- iii. vailed upon to consent to its abandonment.1 Rulh. i. 18, 24. Salv. i. of these These assemblies, so famous in Polish history, so fatal 21. to her inhabitants, presented so extraordinary a spectacle, Description that it is hardly possible, in reading even the most authen- assemblies. tic descriptions of them, to believe that we have not stepped into the regions of Eastern romance. The plain of Volo, to the west of Warsaw, was the theatre, from the earliest times, of the popular elections. Soon the impatient pospolite, or general assembly of the free Poles, covered that vast area with its waves, like an army prepared to commence an assault on a fortified town. The innumerable piles of arms; the immense tables round which faction united its supporters; a thousand jousts with the javelin or the lance; a thousand squadrons engaged in mimic war; a thousand parties of palatines, governors of castles, and other dignified authorities, who traversed the ranks, distributing exhortations, party songs, XVII. 1794. saw. CHAP. and largesses; a thousand cavalcades of gentlemen, who rode, according to custom, with their battle-axes by their side, and discussed at the gallop the dearest interests of the republic; innumerable quarrels, originating in drunkenness, and terminating in blood: Such were the scenes of tumult, amusement, and war-a faithful mirror of Poland—which, as far as the eye could reach, filled the plain. The arena was closed in by a vast circle of tents, which embraced, as in an immense girdle, the plain of Volo, the shores of the Vistula, and the spires of WarThe horizon seemed bounded by a range of snowy mountains, of which the summits were discernible in the hazy distance by their dazzling whiteness. The camp formed another city, with its markets, its gardens, its hotels, and its monuments. There the great displayed their Oriental magnificence; the nobles, the palatines, vied with each other in the splendour of their horses and equipages; and the stranger who beheld for the first time that luxury, worthy of the last and greatest of the nomad people, was never weary of admiring the immense hotels, the porticoes, the colonnades, the galleries of painted or gilded stuffs, the castles of cotton and silk, with their drawbridges, towers, and ditches.1 1 Salv. ii. 190. 22. On the day of the elections the three orders mounted Order of the on horseback. The princes, the palatines, the bishops, proceedings. the prelates, proceeded towards the plain of Volo, sur rounded by eighty thousand mounted citizens, any one of whom might, at the expiry of a few hours, find himself king of Poland; and each of whom enjoyed the absolute power of stopping at pleasure the whole proceedings. They all bore in their countenances, even under the livery or banners of a master, the pride arising from that ruinous privilege. The European dress nowhere appeared on that solemn occasion. The children of the desert strove to hide the furs and skins in which they were clothed under chains of gold and the glitter of jewels. Their bonnets were composed of panther skins; eagle or heron plumes surmounted them the most splendid precious stones. on their front were Their robes of sable CHAP. 1794. or ermine were bound with velvet or silver: their girdles studded with jewels; over all their furs were suspended chains of diamonds. One hand of each nobleman was without a glove; on it was the splendid ring on which the arms of his family were engraved, the mark, as in ancient Rome, of the equestrian order-another proof of the intimate connexion between the race, the customs, and the traditions of the northern tribes, and those of the 192, 194. founders of the Eternal City.1 1 Salv. ii. 23. But nothing in this rivalry of magnificence could equal the splendour of their arms. Double poniards, double splendour of scimitars, set with brilliants; bucklers of costly workman- the dresses. ship, battle-axes enriched in silver, and glittering with emeralds and sapphires; bows and arrows richly gilt, which were borne at festivals, in remembrance of the ancient customs of the country, were to be seen on every side. The horses shared in this mixture of barbarism and refinement. Sometimes cased in iron, at others decorated with the richest colours, they bent under the weight of the sabres, the lances and javelins, by which the senatorial order marked their rank. The bishops were distinguished by their gray or green hats, and yellow or red pantaloons, magnificently embroidered with diverse colours. Often they laid aside their sacerdotal habits, and signalised their address as young cavaliers, by the beauty of their arms, and the management of their horses. In that crowd of the equestrian order, there was no gentleman so humble as not to try to rival this magnificence. Many carried, in furs and arms, their whole fortunes on their back. Numbers had sold their votes to some of the candidates, for the vanity of appearing with some additional ornament before their fellow-citizens. And the people, whose dazzled eyes beheld all this magnificence, 2 Salv. ii. were almost without clothing; their long beards, naked 194, 197. legs, and filth, indicated,2 even more strongly than their CHAP. pale visages and dejected air, all the miseries of servi XVII. 1794. 24. Partial in troduction sentative system. tude. At length the utter impossibility of getting any thing done with these immense assemblies, frequently embracing of the repre- a hundred thousand citizens on horseback, and the experienced difficulty of finding them subsistence for any considerable time, led to the introduction, to a certain extent, of the representative system. This change took place in the year 1467, about two hundred years after it had been established in England, and a hundred and eighty after its introduction into Germany. Unfortunately, however, it never prevailed generally in the kingdom, and was accompanied with such restrictions as tended to increase rather than diminish the divisions of the people. The labouring classes were not at all represented; and the nobility never abandoned, and frequently exercised, their right of assembling in person on all important occasions. These general diets being, after this change, rarer, were more generally attended; and as they were assembled only on extraordinary occasions-as the election of a king, or a question of peace or war-the passions of the 1 Rulh. i. 23. people were increased by the importance of their suffrages, Salv. i. 110, and inexperience added to the sudden intoxication of absolute power.1 113. 25. In the true spirit of their democratic institutions, the Pledges uni- Poles had no sooner established a representative system, versally ex- than they surrounded it with such checks, as not only the deputies. rendered it totally useless, but positively hurtful. Not unfrequently the electors, terrified at the powers with which they had invested their representatives, hastened, sword in hand, to the place of their meeting, prepared, if necessary, to oppose open force to the laws. These stormy assemblages were called "Diets under the buckler.” The representatives continued in the new assemblies the ruinous law of unanimity, in spite of the advice of the wisest men, and in opposition to their continual remonstrances. The power of putting by a single vote a nega |