duces, dukes, or generals, in reference to the almost invariable practice of their conducting the armies of the state to the field in person. In the fourteenth century the nobles availed themselves of the weakness of a female reign to diminish the power of their sovereign, and to extend that of their own order. They enacted that no taxes should be levied, that no new laws should be passed, — in short, that no measure of any importance should, as formerly, be effected by the king, but by representatives chosen from among themselves. Hence the origin of the diets of Poland, of which there were two kinds, Ordinary and Extraordinary, the former statedly assembled once in two years, while the latter was summoned by the king only on great emergencies. The diets consisted of the king, the senators, and deputies from provinces and towns, amounting altogether to about four hundred members. These assemblies could sit only for a limited time, and any individal, however humble, had the power of calling for a division of the meeting on any question, and one dissentient voice had the effect of rendering the whole deliberations ineffectual. This latter right, which was termed liber um veto, and which was repeatedly exercised, was the cause of the greatest calamities, and often of much bloodshed. Without the unanimous consent of the diet the king could determine no question of importance, could not declare war, make peace, raise levies, employ auxiliaries, or admit foreign troops into his dominions, with other restrictions, which almost extinguished the regal authority. Nor did the nobility stop here. Having thus undermined the power of the king there was but one step more to gain to themselves the uncontrolled government of the nation, namely, to render the throne elective. This was accordingly accomplished, and the king of Poland enjoyed now the title, but little of the power or dignity of a free sovereign. Liberty, so much boasted of by the Poles, seems from this period to have been confined to the nobles alone. They arrogated an unlimited sway over their respective territories; some of them were hereditary sovereigns of cities and villages, with which the king had no concern; they exercised a power of life and death over their tenants and vassals; they were exempted from taxes; and could not be arrested and imprisoned but for a few crimes of the basest kind. But the most dangerous of all their rights, and one which made their situation analogous to that of the German princes, was the power of constructing fortresses for their private defence, and of maintaining a military force, which, in imitation of real dignity, they caused to keep guard round their palaces. The election of the king was vested in them alone; and none but they, and the citizens of a few particular towns, possessed the privilege of purchasing or inheriting property in land. The nobility, amounting to about 500,000 individuals, Malte- Brun emphatically terms the sovereign body of Poland.
' The senate, however, which owed its origin (in the eleventh century) to Boseslaus I. formed an intermediate authority between the king and the nobles. This body, composed of the ministers of state, of the representatives of the clergy, of palatines, and castellans, consisted of 149 members, until 1767, when four new members were added to the number, as representatives of the province of Lithuania. The senators, except the representatives of the clergy, were nominated by the king, but continued in office for life, and after their appointment were totally independent of royal authority, to which, indeed, they were regarded as a valuable counterpoise. The duty of the senate was to preside over the laws, to be the guardians of liberty, and the protectors of justice and equity, and, conjunctly with the king, to ratify laws made by the nobility. A diet could not, as previously hinted, be constituted without the junction of the senate to the national representatives; a portion of the senators, indeed, acted as a committee for facilitating and conducting the public business of that assembly. The president of the senate was the archbishop of Gnesna, who, during an interregnum, discharged the functions of king,
and enjoyed all the royal prerogatives but that of dispensing justice. His duty also was to summon the extraordinary diet when the throne became vacant, and to preside at that assembly.