82 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



tories ; some of them were hereditary sovereigns of cities 

 and villages, with which the king had no concern ; they 

 exercised a power of life and death over their tenants 

 and vassals ; they were exempted from taxes ; and could 

 not be arrested and imprisoned but for a few crimes of the 

 basest kind. But the most dangerous of all their rights, 

 and one which made their situation analogous to that of 

 the German princes, was the power of constructing fort- 

 resses for their private defence, and of maintaining a mili- 

 tary force, which, in imitation of real dignity, they caused 

 to keep guard round their palaces. The election of the 

 king was vested in them alone ; and none but they, and 

 the citizens of a few particular towns, possessed the pri- 

 vilege of purchasing or inheriting property in land. The 

 nobility, amounting to about 500,000 individuals, Malte- 

 Brun emphatically terms the sovereign body of Poland. 



' The senate, however, which owed its origin (in the 

 eleventh century) to Boseslaus I. formed an intermediate 

 authority between the king and the nobles. This body, 

 composed of the ministers of state, of the representatives 

 of the clergy, of palatines, and castellans, consisted of 149 

 members, until 1767, when four new members were added 

 to the number, as representatives of the province of 

 Lithuania. The senators, except the representatives of 

 the clergy, were nominated by the king, but continued in 

 office for life, and after their appointment were totally 

 independent of royal authority, to which, indeed, they were 

 regarded as a valuable counterpoise. The duty of the 

 senate was to preside over the laws, to be the guardians 

 of liberty, and the protectors of justice and equity, and, 

 conjunctly with the king, to ratify laws made by the 

 nobility. A diet could not, as previously hinted, be 

 constituted without the junction of the senate to the 

 national representatives ; a portion of the senators, 

 indeed, acted as a committee for facilitating and con- 

 ducting the public business of that assembly. The presi- 

 dent of the senate was the archbishop of Gnesna, who, 

 during an interregnum, discharged the functions of king, 



