HISTORY OF EUROPE... 
athe king was a solitary friendless 
power, and the nobles were turbu- 
Jent and aspiring. A principle of 
change operated without ceasing ; 
and no expedient could be found to 
counteraét its effect, until, by the 
fatal introdu¢tion of the berun 
veto,* in the reign of John Casimir, 
who was eletted to the Polish 
throne, in succession to his brother, 
Ladislaus, in 1648, the power of the 
crown was reduced almost to no- 
thing, and the nobles left wholly 
witheat controul. ‘This new prin- 
ciple crowned the Polish constitu- 
tion, the most singular assemblage 
ef incoherent materials that was 
ever exhibited, with the we plus 
ultra of aristocratical licentiousness. 
When all questions were decided 
in the diet by plurality of voices, 
the nuncios, or deputies, necessarily 
possessed considerable weight in the 
government. The servants of the 
crown were led to consult the public 
good, in order to escape the animad- 
version of the general diet; but 
when the establishment of the Ade- 
rum veto enabled them to buy the 
negative of a nuncio, this check on 
their condu€t was removed. In- 
stead of making themselves agree- 
able to the nation, they had now 
nothing more to do than to make 
themselves rich, and they were sure 
of impunity. The exigencies of 
the public were never so great, but 
that a nuncio might be found to sell 
his negative ; nor the deliberations 
of the diet so regular, but that a 
' pretence might be found for inter- 
posing it. It was seldom that the 
great officers of state could all be 
brought to concur in the same 
views; on the contrary, they were 
‘tions. 
[39 
generally divided by hereditary 
feuds, which nothing could allay : 
nor did they always wait the slow 
issue of intrigue in their competi- 
tions. As there did not exist any 
power sufficient to restrain the 
whole, they not unfrequently raised 
armies, fought pitched battles, be- 
sieged one another’s houses, and de- 
solated one another’s estates, with 
all the fury of incensed savages. 
As the practice of setting up the 
crown to the highest bidder invited 
the interference of foreign nations 
in the affairs of the Poles, so also 
did their internal dissentions and 
contests. Ideas were nourished in 
the breasts of neighbouring poten- 
tates, that Poland was unfit for gc- 
verning itself; but instead of en- 
deavouring to remedy that defect, 
by suggesting or encouraging any 
salutary change in the constitution, 
they subverted such a constitution 
the moment it was framed, and 
shared among themselves a kingdom 
which they had been taught to dis. 
respect and despise as venal, feeble, 
and dependent. 
‘Thus, it is plainly to be perceived, 
that although Poland had not .the 
advantage of any suchbarriers as 
usually define and defend great king- 
doms, the great cause of its ruin lay 
not in this circumstance, but in the 
faults of its constitution. 
The history of Poland, displaying 
the defects and disadvantages of po- 
litical systems, as by a magnifying 
glass, offers to legislators, and all 
who can, either directly or indirect. 
ly, influence the business of legisla- 
tion, the most important considera- 
It illustrates, in the most 
striking manner, the ultimate ruin 
* Or right which every provincial deputy enjoyed of putting a stop, by hie single 
negative, to the proceeding of the general diet. 
[D4] 
that 
