LITHUANIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 95 



mercial importance increased, and it became an outpost 

 of the Hanseatic League. In this work the descendants 

 of Rurik played an important part, but they were always 

 kept in strict subordination to the popular will. Political 

 freedom kept pace with commercial prosperity. What 

 means Rurik employed for establishing and preserving 

 order we know not, but we know that his successors in 

 Novgorod possessed merely such authority as was freely 

 granted them by the people. The supreme power 

 resided, not in the prince, but in the assembly of the 

 citizens called together in the market-place by the sound 

 of the great bell. This assembly made laws for the 

 prince as well as for the people, entered into alliances 

 with foreign powers, declared war and concluded peace, 

 imposed taxes, raised troops, and not only elected the 

 magistrates, but also judged and deposed them when it 

 thought fit. The prince was little more than the hired 

 commander of the troops and the president of the judicial 

 administration. When entering on his functions he had 

 to take a solemn oath that he would faithfully observe 

 the ancient laws and usages, and if he failed to fulfil his 

 promise he was sure to be summarily deposed and 

 expelled. The people had an old rhymed proverb, " Koli 

 khud knayaz, tak v grayaz !" (" If the prince is bad, into 

 the mud with him !"), and they habitually acted according 

 to it. So unpleasant, indeed, was the task of ruling those 

 sturdy, stiff-necked burghers, that some princes refused to 

 undertake it, and others, having tried it for a time, 

 voluntarily laid down their authority and departed. But 

 these frequent depositions and abdications as many as 

 thirty took place in the course of a single century did 

 not permanently disturb the existing order of things. 

 The descendants of Rurik were numerous, and there were 

 always plenty of candidates for the vacant place. The 

 municipal republic continued to grow in strength and in 

 riches, and during the thirteenth and fourteenth century 

 it proudly styled itself " Lord Novgorod the Great " 

 (Gospodin Veliki Novgorod]. 



