36] 
tion, and defending the frontier. 
Depressed by long habits of the most | 
abject slavery, they Jost that clastic 
vigour of both body and mind whieh 
is necessary to constitute a soldier, 
They had hardly the shadow of in- 
terest in the public weifare. Being 
already as low as it was possible to 
reduce them, they might, if forced 
to change masters, be placed ina 
better situation, but not in aworse. 
Hence the defence of the state was 
left entirely to the nobility : a class 
of men, whom habits of licentious 
independence had already rendered 
totally unfit for submission to the 
necessary strictness of military sub- 
ordination. While Charles XII. of 
Sweden over-ran Poland in so short 
atime, and a few Russian regiments 
at the election of the late and last 
king, overawed the Folish nation, 
once so powerful, the peasants, as 
in all similar cases, stood neuter, 
and the nobility, pursuing all of 
them separate measures, left the 
whole an easy prev. 
The nobles having become, after 
the death of Casimir the Great, 
the undisputed masters of the lives 
and fortunes of their peasants, next 
turned their attention to retrench 
the power of the crown. The royal 
prerogative was indeed exorbitant, 
and totally incompatible with the 
principles of a free government. It 
accorded, however, with the irre. 
gular spirit of feudal times, when 
the nobility, although they possessed 
not any constitutional check on the 
power of the crown, could yet over. 
come the king, and extort from his 
fears, the enjoyment of an inde- 
pendence which was not secured to 
them by any legal concession, But 
the time was now arrived when this 
precarious freedom could no longer 
satisfy a high spirited nobility — 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 17995. 
Lewis, the nephew and successor of 
Casimir, possessed extensive heredi- 
tary dominions, and might employ 
his Hungarian army to crush the 
liberty of his Polish subjefts. The 
nobles resolved to prevent these 
dangers, and the occasion was highly 
favourable to their design. Lewis, 
when his uncle breathed his last, 
was in Hungary. The nobles pro- 
fiting of this circumstance, resolved 
to stipulate with him for their 
own privileges, before they would 
admit him into the kingdom. A 
deputation of their number waited 
on him at Buda, and demanded and 
obtained a formal renunciation of 
some branches of the prerogative, 
as the conditions on which they 
were willing to become his subjeCts. 
Of these the most important were, 
that the king shovld not impose 
taxes without the consent of the 
states: that, in the event of hisdying 
without heirs male, the eleétioh of 
his successor should be left to the 
states; that he should reimburse to 
the nation the expences, and even 
damages, occasioned by his wars ; 
that he should reinstate the grand 
proprietors in their tyrannic privi- 
leges; and that it should not be 
lawful for a peasant, or in other 
words, a predial slave, to bring an 
action against his lord. This is the 
origin of that compact termed in 
Polish Latin Pa&a Conventg, which, 
with occasional variations, conform. _ 
able to the circumstances of the 
times, every subsequent king was 
obliged to ratify previously to his 
coronation. 
The nobles began now, agreeably 
to the usual progress of successfulam. 
bition, to form other pretensions, and 
to grasp at new privileges. Practis. 
ing on the predominant passions 
of the successors of Lewis, and 
particularly 
