104 



Of the Polish and Rtissia7i Governments, 



Neither Poland nor Russia were ever conquered by the 

 Romans ; yet the Polish government was for some centuries 

 the most imperfect in Europe, and the great mass of its 

 inhabitants the most unhappy, from the turbulence and ty- 

 ranny of the nobility, and the too limited prerogative of the 

 nominal sovereign. 



Citizens and tradesmen were held in contempt, and the 

 peasants in slavery. The killing a peasant by a nobleman 

 was atoned for by the payment of fifteen shillings.* 



The powrer of the Russian monarch is the most despotic 

 in Christian Europe, and his territories the most extensive. 

 The persons, goods and even lives of his subjects are wholly , 

 at bis disposal. The nobility have no privilege, not even 

 that of precedence, the peasants are in the same condition as 

 those of Poland.-}- Punishments were shockingly inhuman 

 luitill moderated by a happy succession of female sovereigns. 

 Russia enjoyed unparallelled glory and happiness under the 

 reign of Catherine the admirable, the most accomplished 



sovereign 



• Totze, State of Europe, 270. ' f Ibid. 353, 35+, 2 Cox, 321. 



