The very limited and imperfect literature of Poland, the general ignorance of the common people, and the absence of educational institutions, deprived the government of the advantages arising from the controlling influence of natural law, which is founded on the arts, sciences, and general literature.

The influence of moral law, comprehending those principles of moral rectitude which appeal to the hopes, the fears, the retribution, the perfection, and the temporal and eternal interests of man, was very feeble in Poland. The power of moral motives, prompted by a pure religion and refined literature-the foundation of every wise government, and the bulwark of freedom -was too feeble to afford any permanent aid to their laws. That system of jurisprudence which prevails in England and America, and is undoubtedly the best in the world, is founded on moral law; which comprehends those principles which human reason has discovered, to regulate the conduct of man in all his various social, moral, and political relations. Moral law is the science which teaches men their duty, and the reasons of it. In a more enlarged sense, it comprehends natural theology, moral and political philosophy, embracing man's duties to God, himself, and to others. The obligatory force of moral law is derived from its presumed coincidence with the will of God. The Creator has made men according to His own good pleasure, and has established the laws of his being, and determined his powers and faculties. And so indispensable are these principles for the proper government of the human species, that all efforts to frame laws and governments without them have proved unsuccessful.

The law of habeas corpus seems to have been overlooked by the Polish jurists. The nobility had no need of it, for the reason * Encyclopædia Americana, IX., 150.

they could not be deprived of their liberty; and the people were deprived of it, because they had no liberty. And had the law been introduced, it never could have been enforced under such a government, where the civil law is subservient to military despotism.

Martial law was so prevalent, that civil law in all its departments was subservient to it, and constituted their entire system of remedial law. It ruled all classes, and disposed of life, liberty, property, and happiness, without the right of appeal or previous investigation; and united in the same persons-the nobles-the absolute power of the sword with the purse, together with the legislative, judicial, and executive authority.

Superadded to all these judicial evils, is the absence of a common law system, founded on the pure, immutable principles of justice and right, which has long been the pride and glory of English and American jurisprudence. We search in vain in the history of Polish jurisprudence, from the earliest laws of Odin, to the constitution and code of Alexander, for any vestiges of a common law system which protects the rights of man by the rules of eternal justice.

Commercial law, which is of the first importance, and universally diffused for the benefit of all classes in commercial nations, was little known in Poland, for the reason they had no commerce which received judicial protection. It was the mistaken policy of the Polish government to discourage both domestic and foreign commerce, which is the life of a nation, and the support of the people.

The civil and commercial codes now in force are for the most part the same as in France; and the criminal code is modelled on that of Prussia and Austria. Personal and religious liberty

are nominally guaranteed to those who do not interfere with politics, find no fault with the government, and give it a servile support. The press is under the control of censors, who are more active and rigorous than in Russia Justices of the peace have jurisdiction in civil causes to the amount of five hundred florins. All larger sums are tried before the tribunals of original jurisdiction in the capitals of the several governments. At Warsaw, besides a court of appeal, there is a supreme court of cassation; and commercial tribunals are established in all the principal towns. Criminal causes are tried in separate tribunals, of which there are four in the kingdom. Political offences come under the cognizance of a council of war, or a special commission.*

The principal authors on Polish law are the codes of Wislica, of Chancellor Laski, and of Zamoyski; and the works of Macieiowski, Budny, and Sanwicki.

We have now finished a general portrait of Polish law, by examining its general principles without entering into the minutia of the system, which would be out of place in a work of this kind. Enough has been exhibited to show its character and influence on the fall of Poland. Its ruinous effects on the king, the nobility, the peasantry, and all classes of Polish society, with its prejudicial influence on foreign courts, may be easily traced by contrasting the laws of Poland with the useful and sound principles of jurisprudence adopted by other prosperous and civilized nations, as briefly sketched in the introduction of this chapter.

Poland never had a well-organized judiciary. Until a very late period in her history, what little jurisprudence they had was feebly, erroneously, and corruptly administered by the king and his nobles, under the influence of perjury, caprice, and bribery— * M'Culloch's Universal Gazetteer, Art. Poland.

without law, justice, or learning to guide their deliberations. After the organization of their imbecile judiciary, the administration of justice was a matter of merchandise, under the control of bargain and sale for the highest bribe and the blackest perjury. In all nations where such a corrupt jurisprudence prevails, history uniformly records the same disastrous consequences; and Poland is not an exception to the general rule.*

*Fletcher, 47, 236. Encyclopædia Americana, X., 212.

CHAPTER XV.

LITERATURE.

General Principles of Literature-Polish Language-First Period of Polish Literature-Second Period-Third Period-Fourth Period-Fifth Period

-Sixth Period-Seventh Period-Polish Theatre-Polish Music-General Views of Polish Literature.

SECTION I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LITERATURE.

THE term literature, in its most general sense, comprehends the sciences, the arts, and general learning. The arts admit of three general divisions; the useful arts, the fine arts, and the magic arts. There is always more or less difficulty involved in drawing the dividing line between the sciences, properly so called, and the arts; for the reason, that in many instances they are so blended together, that it is impossible to separate them, by any order of classification. The learned generally apply the term science to those departments of knowledge which are more speculative or abstract in their nature; and which are conversant with truths or phenomena that exist at the time we contemplate them. The arts, on the contrary, are generally treated as those departments of knowledge which originate in human ingenuity,