were first passed. On the motion of John Zamoyski, representative of Belz, in Gallicia, a law was passed granting all the nobles a vote in the choice of their king; and the plain near Warsaw was designated as the place for the meeting of the future assemblies. At the same time, also, the old coronation oath, or pacta conventa, was revived. The principal articles were the same as ever afterwards were administered to the kings elect; depriving the monarch of all active power, making the crown elective, and requiring regular sessions of the legislative assemblies every two years. The king was bound to observe perfect toleration of religious principles; and the nobles agreed, for themselves and their posterity, never to take up arms on account of religious disputes. The Roman Catholic religion was recognized as the established faith of the government, and the sovereigns were required to embrace it.

Under these laws, the nobles, for the first time, convened at Warsaw, armed and equipped with all their military pomp and retinue, as if they were on the eve of battle. These assemblies, however, generally disregarded all law, and were controlled by a reckless and wilful obstinacy-the ambition to rule or ruin; and, finally, in the waning existence of the nation, were governed by the terror of foreign foes, and compelled to act under the military dictation of Russia and their conquerors.

The field of Volo, so celebrated as the place of the election of the Polish kings, is about five miles from Warsaw; and was formerly surrounded by a ditch with three gates,-one for Great Poland, one for Little Poland, and one for Lithuania. It was so arranged, that in the middle were two inclosures,-one of an oblong shape, surrounded by a rampart or ditch, in the centre of which was erected, on the day of elections, a vast temporary

building of wood, covered at the top and open at the sides, which was called the kopa, occupied by the senate; and the other was of circular shape, called the kola, in which the nuncios were assembled in the open air. The nobles, generally numbering from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand, encamped on the plain in separate bodies, under the banners of their respective palatinates, with their principal officers in front on horseback. The primate, having announced the names of the several candidates, kneeled down and chanted a hymn; and then, mounting his caparisoned, dashing charger, galloped pompously round the plain, and received the votes. The nobles did not vote individually, but

each palatinate in a body.*

It was necessary that the election should be unanimous; and a single nobleman peremptorily stopped the election of Wladislas VII. Being asked what objection he had to him, he answered, "None at all; but I will not suffer him to be king." After being by some means brought over, he gave the king, as the reason for his opposition: "I had a mind to see whether our liberty was still in being or not. I am satisfied that it is, and your majesty shall not have a better subject than myself." If the palatinates. agreed, the primate asked again, and yet a third time, if all were satisfied; and, after a general approbation, he three times proclaimed the king; and the grand-marshal of the crown repeated the proclamation three times at the gates of the camp.†

It was the exercise of this high privilege of electing their own king, which created and sustained the lofty bearing of the Polish nobles, inducing the proud boast, which, in a moment of extremity, an intrepid band made to their king: "What hast thou to fear

* Stephens's Travels in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland, II., 223, 224. † Stephens, II., 225.

with twenty thousand lances? If the sky should fall, we would keep it up with their points." But, unhappily, although the exercise of this privilege was confined only to the nobles, the election of a king often exhibited a worse picture than all the evils of universal suffrage in England and America. The throne was open to the whole world; the nobles were split into contending factions; foreign gold found its way among them, and sometimes they deliberated under the bayonets of foreign troops. Warsaw and its environs were a scene of violence and confusion, and not unfrequently the field of Volo was stained with blood.*

* Lelewel's Essay on the Civil and Criminal Legislation of Poland. Connor's History of Poland, II., 82.

7

CHAPTER VI.

ARMY.

Origin of the Polish Army-Compensation of the Army-Origin of the National Army-The Cossack Army-Organization of the Army-Their Dress and Arms-Their Character and Condition-Polish Legions.

THE business of war is the principal occupation of a barbarous people, especially in their early nomadic existence, as in Poland The government of such a rude people is uniformly arbitrary, organized and defended by a savage soldiery, and eventually yields to a military despotism. As the state advances in civilization and refinement, the army becomes a subordinate branch of the government, and equally essential, whatever be the form of the government, and however savage or civilized the people. Peace-making was no part of the business of the early Polish chiefs; and the subsequent kings pursued the profession of their predecessors. As far back as history and tradition can trace the annals of the Poles, and their early predecessors, the profession of arms was their principal pursuit; booty was their only reward, and their weapons the only baggage with which they encumbered themselves. During the reign of Boleslas, between 1103 and 1139, the pospolite or militia of Poland was first established. Every palatinate, of which Poland proper contained eleven, was obliged to raise a certain number of cavalry within a

stated time, to be subject to the king's orders. All the army, at least those who fought on horseback, were styled nobles. In the reign of Batory, which commenced in 1575, the strength of the nation was augmented by the establishment of the first standing army, and the introduction of military tactics.*

One of the most powerful divisions of the Polish army was the Cossacks, or plunderers, as their name implies. Batory was the first prince who reduced this formidable foe to some military order, in the latter part of the sixteenth century. It was that Cossack tribe called Zaporog, or Cosaci Zaporohenses, that was first reduced to military order in Poland. These savages inhabited the islands and swamps of the Dnieper, which served as a barrier and common frontier between them and their warlike neighbors. In the reign of Sigismund I., they were first armed against the Tartars, under their commander and governor, Daszkiewicz, a Polish officer; and from this time they continued unnoticed, until the time of Batory. The Cossacks were the southern borderers of Poland, and like all other savages of their character, were continually carrying on an irregular and predatory war. All the inhabitants of the Ukraine, which means the frontier country, were, in the course of time, called Cossacks. They were only a military body, and not a nation, as some have. erroneously supposed. Chevalier, very properly, compares them to the Francarchers, who were formerly established in France by Charles VII. It was their business every season to make periodical naval expeditions against the Turks, and they frequently advanced within two leagues of Constantinople. Their rendezvous was in the islands of the Dnieper; and when winter approached, they returned to their homes. Previous to the time of Batory,

*Fletcher, I., 21, 32, 43, 63.