74 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



session of seals as well as the other. These two great 

 posts are held alternately by a spiritual and by a temporal 

 lord. 



' The money which belongs to the republic is deposited 

 with the treasurer, who regulates the revenues ; and he 

 ought to assist in all contracts made by the king, 

 which have no validity till they have been signed by this 

 officer. 



' Those who compose the senate, next in station to these 

 ten prime officers of the kingdom and the Grand Duchy, 

 are the bishops, the palatines, the castellans, and some 

 starosts, who preserve there the rank annexed to the dignity 

 of their bishoprics, palatinates, castellanies, and starosties. 



'A palatine commands the troops of the particular 

 province which is consigned to his Government ; he is the 

 president of the nobility of his palatinate, and his juris- 

 diction extends to civil and criminal affairs. 



c The castellans are the lieutenants of the palatines ; and 

 the starosts, or captains, have much the same rank. But 

 though the palatines generally precede the castellans and 

 the starosts, yet the castellan of Cracow is, by a peculiar 

 privilege, superior to the palatine of that city ; and the 

 starost, or captain general, of Samogitia, which is a vassal 

 province of the Republic of Poland, takes place of several 

 Polish and Lithuanian palatines. 



' The clergy, who constitute the first order of men in 

 the kingdom, are rich and powerful; they possess more 

 than 200,000 towns, and several considerable cities. The 

 power of the secular clergy, is, however, balanced by that 

 of the monks, who invade the privileges of. the common 

 pastors in a thousand instances with impunity, and cause 

 themselves to be dreaded and respected, in consequence 

 of the empire they have assumed over the minds of a 

 credulous people. 



' The gentry compose the second order, and they possess 

 dignities and employments, as well in the kingdom as in 

 the Grand Duchy, and in which they never permit 

 strangers or the commonalty to have the least par- 



