76 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



several instructions, with the demands they are to form, in 

 the name of the province, are regulated in these dietines. 



' The king convokes the diet by dispatching letters, 

 which are called Universalia, to all the palatinates ; and 

 yet the nobility assembled iti the reign of John Casimir 

 the second, without the orders of that prince, and the 

 Polish pospolite, marched into the Ukraine, in order to 

 subdue the Cossacks, contrary to his desire. 



' The nuncios, who are elected in the dietines, meet at 

 the place specified by letters of convocation, and take 

 their seats in the assembly, according to the order and 

 dignity of the palatines which they represent. They 

 afterwards proceed to the election of a marshal of the 

 nuncios, who is alternatively chosen out of the lords of 

 Great and Little Poland and Lithuania. 



' This officer has a very extraordinary power in the 

 diet. No member whatever can speak without his per- 

 mission, and he is empowered to impose silence on whom 

 he pleases. He is the organ of the nobility, and transmits 

 to the senate and the sovereign all complaints against 

 exorbitant proceedings, abuses in Government, and 

 injurious treatment of particular persons ; he is attentive 

 to the protection and safety of the deputies, whose chief 

 he is constituted by his office, and he punishes all offences 

 that are committed in the assembly. 



' The general diet for the election of a king is that 

 wherein strangers are interested the most. When an 

 interregnum has been declared, either in consequence of 

 the death, abdication, or deposition of the king, the 

 primate, who is then the chief of the republic, dispatches 

 his universalia to the several provinces, for a general 

 assembly. A deputation of senators is likewise sent to 

 the army to assist the generals with their counsels, and 

 an exact inventory is taken of the treasure of the Crown. 

 All the tribunals are then discontinued, and every juris- 

 diction, except those of the marshals, entirely ceases. 



' The assembly is at last held near Warsaw, in the 

 open field, which is surrounded with ditches, and covered 



