Poland. riage, and reached the palace about five in the morning. His wound was found not to be dangerous; and he soon recovered from the bruises and injuries which he had suffered during this memorable night. So extraordinary an escape is scarce to be paralleled in history, and affords ample matter of wonder and surprise.

Is received

with de

monstra

III Partition of

"It is natural to inquire what is become of Kosinski, the man who saved his majesty's life, and the other conspirators. He was born in the palatinate of Cracow, and of mean extraction; having assumed the name of Ko sinski (c), which is that of a noble family, to give himself credit. He had been created an officer in the troops of the confederates under Pulaski. It would seem as if Kosinski began to entertain the idea of preserving the king's life from the time when Luskawski and Strawenski abandoned him; yet he had great struggles with himself before he could resolve on this conduct, after the solemn engagements into which he had entered. Even after he had conducted the king back to Warsaw, he expressed more than once his doubts of the propriety of what he had done, and some remorse for having deceived his employers. He was detained under a very strict confinement, and obliged to give evidence against his two companions Lukawski and Strawenski, who were beheaded, his majesty having obtained for them from the diet a mitigation of the horrible punishment which the laws of Poland inflicts upon regicides. About a week after the execution of these conspirators, Kosinski was sent out of Poland, after the king had settled upon him an annual pension, which he enjoyed at Semigallia, in the papal territories."

Upon the king's return to Warsaw he was received at Warsaw with the utmost demonstrations of joy. Every one exclaimed with rapture, "The king is alive!" and all strugtions of joy. gled to get near him, to kiss his hand, or even to touch his clothes. But neither the virtues nor the popularity of the sovereign could allay the factious spirit of the Poles, nor prevent the dismemberment of his kingdom. "The partition of Poland was first projected by the Poland pro- king of Prussia. Polish or Western Prussia had long jec ́ed by been an object of his ambition: exclusive of its fertility, the king of Prussia. commerce, and population, its local situation rendered it highly valuable to that monarch; it lay between his German dominions and Eastern Prussia, and while pos sessed by the Poles, cut off at their will all communication between them." The period was now arrived when the situation of Poland seemed to promise the easy acquisition of this valuable province. Frederic pursued it, however, with all the caution of an able politician. On the commencement of the troubles, he showed no eagerness to interfere in the affairs of this country; and although he had concurred with the empress of Russia in raising Stanislaus Augustus to the throne of Poland, yet he declined taking any active part in his favour against the confederates. Afterwards, when the whole kingdom became convulsed throughout with civil commotions (1769), and desolated likewise by the plague, he, under pretence of forming lines to prevent the spreading of the infection, advanced his

troops into Polish Prussia, and occupied that whole di- Poland.

strict.

112

who gains

over the

sures.

Though now completely master of the country, and by no means apprehensive of any formidable resistance from the disunited and distracted Poles, yet, as he was emperor well aware that the security of his new acquisition de-and the pended upon the acquiescence of Russia and Austria, he empress to planned the partition of Poland. He communicated his meathe project to the emperor, either upon their interview at Niess in Silesia in 1769, or in that of the following year at Newstadt in Austria; from whom the overture met with a ready concurrence. To induce the empress of Russia to acquiesce in the same project, he dispatched his brother Henry to Petersburg, who suggested to the empress that the house of Austria was forming an alliance with the Porte, with which she was then at war; that if such alliance took place, it would create a most formidable combination against her; that, nevertheless the friendship of that house was to be purchased by acceding to the partition; that, upon this condition, the emperor was willing to renounce his connection with the Grand Signior, and would suffer the Russians to prosecute the war without interruption. Catharine, anxious to push her conquest against the Turks, and dreading the interposition of the emperor in that quarter; perceiving likewise, from the intimate union between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, that it would not be in her power, at the present juncture, to prevent the intended partition-closed with the proposal, and selected no inconsiderable portion of the Polish territories for herself. The treaty was signed at Petersburg in the beginning of February 1772, by the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian plenipotentiaries. It would be tedious to enter into a detail of the pleas urged by the three powers in favour of their several demands; it would be no less uninteresting to lay before the reader the answers and remonstrances of the king and senate, as well as the appeals to the other states which had guaranteed the possessions of Poland. The courts of London, Poland dis Paris, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, remonstrated against membered the usurpations; but remonstrances without assistance could be of no effect. Poland submitted to the dismemberment not without the most violent struggles; and now for the first time felt and lamented the fatal effects of faction and discord.

A diet being demanded by the partitioning powers, in order to ratify the cession of the provinces, it met on the 19th of April 1773; and such was the spirit of the members, that, notwithstanding the deplorable situation of their country, the threats and bribes of the three powers, the partition-treaty was not carried through without much difficulty. For some time the majority of the nuncios appeared determined to oppose the dismemberment, and the king firmly persisted in the same resolution. The ambassadors of the three courts enforced their requisitions by the most alarming menaces, and threatened the king with deposition and imprisonThey also gave out by their emissaries, that in case the diet continued refractory, Warsaw should be pillaged.

ment.

(c) His real name was John Kutsma.

113

Poland. pillaged. This report was industriously circulated, and made a sensible impression upon the inhabitants. By menaces of this sort, by corrupting the marshal of the diet, who was accompanied with a Russian guard; in a word, by bribes, promises, and threats, the members of the diet were at length prevailed on to ratify the dismemberment.

114 The kings

115

Universal

The partitioning powers, however, did less injury to the republic by dismembering its fairest provinces, than in perpetuating the principles of anarchy and confusion, and establishing on a permanent footing that exorbitant liberty which is the parent of faction, and has proved the decline of the republic. Under pretence of amending the constitution, they confirmed all its defects, and took effectual precautions to render this unhappy country incapaple of emerging from its present deplorable state, as was seen in the failure of the most patriotic attempt that was perhaps ever made by a king to reform the constitution of his kingdom.

The kings of Poland were anciently hereditary and abof Poland solute; but afterwards became elective and limited. In originally the reign of Louis, towards the end of the 14th century, hereditary, several limitations were laid on the royal prerogative. In that of Casimir IV. who ascended the throne in 1446, representatives from the several palatinates were first called to the diet; the legislative power till then having been lodged in the states, and the executive in the afterwards king and senate. On the decease of Sigismund Augustelective, us, it was enacted by law, "That the choice of a king for the future should perpetually remain free and open to all the nobles of the kingdom;" which law was accordingly observed to the great injury of the kingdom. "As soon as the throne is vacant, all the courts of History. justice, and other ordinary springs of the machine of government, remain in a state of inaction, and all the authority is transferred to the primate, who, in quality of interrex, has in some respects more power than the king himself; and yet the republic takes no umbrage at it, because he has not time to make himself formidable. He notifies the vacancy of the throne to foreign princes, which is in effect proclaiming that a crown is to be disposed of; he issues the universalia, or circular letters for the election; gives orders to the starosts (a sort of military officers who have great authority, and whose proper business it is to levy the revenue) to keep a strict guard upon the fortified places, and to the grand generals to do the same upon the frontiers, towards which the army marches.

116

Place and

the election.

"The place of election is the field of Wola, at the ananner of gates of Warsaw. All the nobles of the kingdom have a right of voting. The Poles encamp on the left side of the Vistula, and the Lithuanians on the right, each under the banners of their respective palatinates, which makes a sort of civil army; consisting of between a hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand men, assembled to exercise the highest act of freedom. Those who are not able to provide a horse and a sabre stand behind on foot, armed with scythes, and do not seem at all less proud than the rest, as they have the same right of voting.

"The field of election is surrounded by a ditch with three gates, in order to avoid confusion, one to the east for Great Poland, another to the south for Little Poland, and a third to the west for Lithuania. In the middle of the field, which is called Kolau, is erected a VOL. XVII. Part I.

great building of wood, named the szopa or hall for Poland. the senate, at whose debates the deputies are present, and carry the result of them to the several palatinates. The part which the marshal acts upon this occasion is very important; for, being the mouth of the nobility, he has it in his power to do great service to the candidates; he is also to draw up the instrument of election, and the king elect must take it only from his hand.

"It is prohibited, upon pain of being declared a public enemy, to appear at the election with regular troops, in order to avoid all violence. But the nobles, who are always armed with pistols and sabres, commit violence against one another, at the time that they cry out 'liberty!'

"All who aspire openly to the crown are expressly excluded from the field of election, that their presence may not constrain the voters. The king must be elected nemine contradicente, by all the suffrages without exception. The law is founded upon this principle, that when a great family adopts a father, all the children. have a right to be pleased. The idea is plausible in speculation; but if it was rigorously kept to, Poland could have no such thing as a lawful king. They therefore give up a real unanimity, and content themselves with the appearance of it; or rather, if the law, which prescribes it, cannot be fulfilled by means of money, they call in the assistance of the sabre.

"Before they come to this extremity, no election can possibly be carried on with more order, decency, and appearance of freedom. The primate in few words recapitulates to the nobles on horseback the respective merits of the candidates; he exhorts them to choose the most worthy, invokes heaven, gives his blessing to the assembly, and remains alone with the marshal of the diet, while the senators disperse themselves into the several palatinates, to promote an unanimity of sentiments. If they succeed, the primate goes himself to collect the votes, naming once more all the candidates. Szoda (answer the nobles), that is the man we choose ;' and instantly the air resounded with his name, with cries of vivat, and the noise of pistols. If all the palatines agreed in their nominations, the primate got on horseback; and then the profoundest silence succeeding to the greatest noise, he asked three times if all were satisfied? and after a general approbation, three times proclaimed the king; and the grand-marshal of the crown repeated the proclamation three times at the three gates of the camp. How glorious a king this, if endued with royal qualities! and how incontestable his title in the suffrages of a whole people! But this sketch of a free and peaceable election is by no means a representation of what usually happened. The corruption of the great, the fury of the people, intrigues and factions, the gold and the arms of foreign powers, frequently filled the scene with violence and blood."

117

Before the king was proclaimed, the pacta conventa The pacta was read aloud to him, which on his knees at the altar conventa, he swore to observe. As this contract, which was drawn up, methodized, and approved, by the senate and nobility, was deemed the great charter of Poland, we shall enumerate the principal articles of which it consisted. These are, that the king should not attempt to encroach on the liberty of the people, by rendering the crown hereditary in his family; but that he should preserve all the customs, laws, and ordonnances, respecting L

the

:

the Lithuanians, it was agreed, that every third diet Poland. should be held at Grodno. "When it is proposed to hold a general diet, the king, or, in case of an interregnum, the primate, issued writs to the palatines of the several provinces, specifying the time and place of the meeting. A sketch likewise was sent of the business to be deliberated on by the assembly; the senate was consulted in this particular, and six weeks were allowed the members to prepare themselves for the intended session. It is remarkable, that the diet never sat more than six weeks in the most critical conjunctures and pressing emergencies: they have been known to break up in the middle of an important debate, and to leave the business to a future meeting. This custom has been justly esteemed one of the greatest defects of the Polish constitution, which probably owed its origin to convenience, but was afterwards superstitiously observed from whim and caprice. On receipt of the king's writ, the palatine communicated the meeting of the diet to all the castellans, starostas, and other inferior officers and gentry within his jurisdiction, requiring them to assemble on a certain day to elect deputies, and take into consideration the business specified in the royal summons. These Dietines. meetings were called petty diets, dietines, or lantage, in the language of the country; every gentleman possessing three acres of land having a vote, and matters being determined by a majority; whereas in the general diet decrees were only valid when the whole body was unani> mous. Every palatinate had three representatives, though the business devolved on one called a nuncio, who was elected for his ability and experience; and the other two were added only to give weight to this leading member, and do honour by their magnificent appearance to the palatinate they represented. As these deputies, since the reign of Casimir III. had seats in the diet, it naturally divided the general assembly into two bodies, the upper and lower; the one being composed of the senate, the superior clergy, and the great officers; the other of the representatives of the palatinates, who prepared all business for the superior body.

Poland. the freedom of election: that he should ratify all treaties subsisting with foreign powers which were approved by the diet that it should be his chief study to cultivate peace, preserve the public tranquillity, and promote the interest of the realm: that he should not coin money except in the name of the republic, or appropriate to himself the advantages arising from coinage: that in declaring war, concluding peace, making levies, hiring auxiliaries, or admitting foreign troops upon any pretext within the Polish dominions, the consent of the diet and senate should be necessary: that all offices and preferments should be given to the natives of Poland and Lithuania; and that no pretence should excuse or palliate the crime of introducing foreigners into the king's council or the departments of the republic: that the officers of his majesty's guards should be Poles or Lithuanians; and that the colonel should absolutely be a native of Poland, and of the order of nobility: that all the officers should be subordinate to the authority of the mareschal that no individual should be vested with more employments than the law allows that the king should not marry without the approbation of the senate; and that the household of the queen should be determined and regulated by the republic: that the sovereign should never apply his private signet to acts and papers of a public nature: that the king should dispose of the offices both of the court and of the republic; and regulate with the senate the number of forces necessary for the defence of the kingdom: that he should administer justice by the advice of the senate and his council that the expences of his civil list should be the same with those of his predecessors that he should fill up all vacancies in the space of six weeks that this should be his first business in the diet, obliging the chancellor to publish his appointments in due form: that the king should not diminish the treasure kept at Cracow; but, on the contrary, endeavour to augment that and the number of the crown-jewels: that he should borrow no money without the consent of the diet that he should not equip a naval force without the consent and full approbation of the republic: that he should profess the Roman Catholic faith, promote, maintain, and defend it, through all the Polish dominions and finally, that all their several liberties, rights, and privileges, should be preserved to the Polanders and Lithuanians in general, and to all the districts and provinces contained within each of these great divisions, without change, alteration, or the smallest violation, except by the consent of the republic. To these articles a variety of others were added, according to circumstances and the humour of the diet; but what we have recited formed the standing conditions, which were scarcely ever altered or omitted.

118

The diet of Poland,

:

The diet of Poland was composed of the king, the and senate, bishops, and the deputies of the nobility or gentry of every palatinate, called, in their collective capacity, comitia togata, that is, when the states assembled in the city without arms and horses; or comitia paludata, when they met in the fields armed, as during an interregnum, at the diet of election. It was a prerogative of the crown to assemble the diet at any particular place, except on occasion of a coronation, which the custom of the country required should be celebrated at the capital. For a number of years, indeed, the diet regularly assembled at Warsaw; but, on complaint made by

119

The first business of the assembly was to choose a mareschal; upon which occasion the debates and tumults ran so high, that the whole time for the session of the diet was often consumed in altercation and wrangling about the election of a speaker, who had now nothing farther to do than return quietly to his own home. After his election, he kissed the king's hand; and the chancellor, as the royal representative, reported the matters to be deliberated by the diet. Then the mareschal acquainted the king with the instructions of the deputies from their constituents, the grievances which they would have redressed, and the abuses they required to be remedied. He likewise requested of his majesty to fill up the vacant offices and benefices. according to law; and he was answered by a set speech from the chancellor, who reported the king's inclination to satisfy his people, as soon as he had consulted his faithful senate. There was something very peculiarly absurd in some of the customs Absurd cus observed by the Polish diet: one in particular merits at- toms obtention. Not only an unanimity of voices was necessary street. to pass any bill, and constitute a decree of the diet, but every bill must likewise be assented to unanimously, or none can take effect. Thus, if out of twenty bills one happened to be opposed by a single voice, called li-The libeberum veto, all the rest were thrown out, and the diet rum veto»

120

served in

121

Poland. the king is to issue his propositions by the circular letters sent before the dietines to every palatinate and to every district for deliberation, which coming before the house with the opinion expressed in the instructions given to their representatives, shall be taken the first for decision.

127 and the house of senate.

128

The libe

2. Particular Laws, viz. temporal taxes; regulations of the mint; contracting public debts; creating nobles, and other casual recompenses; reparation of public expences, both ordinary and extraordinary; concerning war; peace; ratification of treaties, both political and commercial; all diplomatic acts and conventions relative to the laws of nations; examining and acquitting different executive departments, and similar subjects arising from the accidental exigencies and circumstances of the state; in which the propositions, coming directly from the throne into the house of nuncios, are to have preference in discussion before the private bills.

In regard to the house of senate, it is to consist of bishops, palatines, castellans, and ministers, under the presidency of the king, who shall have but one vote, and the casting voice in case of parity, which he may give either personally, or by a message to the house. Its power and duty shall be,

1. Every general law that passes formally through the house of nuncios, is to be sent immediately to this, which is either accepted, or suspended till further national deliberation, by a majority of votes, as prescribed by law. If accepted, it becomes a law in all its force; if suspended, it shall be resumed at the next diet; and if it is then agreed to again by the house of nuncios, the senate must submit to it.

2. Every particular law or statute of the diet in matters above-specified, as soon as it has been determined by the house of nuncios, and sent up to the senate, the votes of both houses shall be jointly computed, and the majority, as described by law, shall be considered as a decree and the will of the nation. Those senators and ministers who, from their share in executive power, are accountable to the republic, cannot have an active voice in the diet, but may be present, in order to give necessary explanations to the states.

These ordinary legislative diets shall have their uninterrupted existence, and be always ready to meet; renewable every two years. The length of sessions shall be determined by the law concerning diets. If convened out of ordinary session upon some urgent occasion, they shall only deliberate on the subject which occasioned such a call, or on circumstances which may arise out

of it.

can

No law or statute enacted by such ordinary diet be altered or annulled by the same. The complement of the diet shall be composed of the number of persons in both houses to be determined hereafter.

The law concerning the dietines or primary elections, as established by the present diet, shall be regarded as a most essential foundation of civil liberty.

The majority of votes shall decide every thing, and rum veto everywhere; therefore we abolish, and utterly annihiabolished. late, liberum veto, all sorts of confederacies and confederate diets, as contrary to the spirit of the present constitution, as undermining the government, and as being ruinous to society.

Willing to prevent, on one hand, violent and fre

VII. The most perfect government cannot exist or last without an effectual executive power. The happiness of the nation depends on just laws, but the good effects of laws flow only from their execution. Experience has taught us, that the neglecting this essential part of government has overwhelmed Poland with disasters.

the consti.

130

Having, therefore, secured to the free Polish nation the right of enacting laws for themselves, the supreme inspection over the executive power, and the choice of Powers of their magistrates, we entrust to the king and his coun- the king cil the highest power of executing the laws. This and council council shall be called straz, or the council of inspec- tion. of inspection.

The duty of such executive power shall be to watch over the laws, and to see them strictly executed according to their import, even by the means of public force, should it be necessary. All departments and magistracies are bound to obey its directions. To this power we leave the right of controlling such as are refractory, or of punishing such as are negligent in the execution of their respective offices.

This executive power cannot assume the right of making laws, or of their interpretation. It is expressly forbidden to contract public debts; to alter the repartition of the national income, as fixed by the diet; to declare war; to conclude definitively any treaty, or any diplomatic act; it is only allowed to carry on negociations with foreign courts, and facilitate temporary occurrences, always with reference to the diet.

families;

132

The crown of Poland we declare to be elective in re- Crown egard to families, and it is settled so for ever. lective in Having experienced the fatal effects of interregna, regard to periodically subverting government, and being desirous of preventing for ever all foreign influence, as well as of insuring to every citizen a perfect tranquillity, we have, but herefrom prudent motives, resolved to adopt hereditary suc- ditary in cession to our throne: therefore we enact and declare, each family that, after the expiration of our life, according to the tinction. gracious will of the Almighty, the present elector of Saxony shall reign over Poland, and in his person shall the dynasty of future kings of Poland begin. We reserve to the nation, however, the right of electing to the throne any other house or family, after the extinction of the first.

till its ex

133

Every king, on his accession to the throne, shall take Coronation a solemn oath to God and the nation, to support the path. present constitution, to fulfil the pacta conventa, which will be settled with the present elector of Saxony, as appointed to the crown, and which shall bind him in the same manner as former ones.

134

The king's person is sacred and inviolable; as no act King's percan proceed immediately from him, he cannot be in any son sacred; manner responsible to the nation; he is not an absolute monarch, but the father and the head of the people; his revenues, as fixed by the pacta conventa, shall be sacred

ly