POLAND, formerly a large country of continental Eu rope, derived its name (Pohlen, a plain) from the general aspect of its surface, which, with the exception of a few diminutive eminences, is so extremely level, that, after a rainy season, the waters of different rivers, inundating large portions of the country, flow into each other. The vast tract of land, which this name originally designated, exists no longer as an independent country. A small part of it, in the centre, has lately been erected into a kingdom tributary to Russia ; but by far the greater proportion, by rapacity and conquest, has become subject to the sove reigns of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, respectively. In the present article, we shall first communicate every in formation respecting ancient Poland, which cannot with propriety be given in the description of the countries to which it now belongs, and then conclude with an account of the kingdom of Poland, as constituted by the Congress of Vienna.
Poland was bounded on the west by Germany and Silesia ; un the south by Hungary and Turkey ; by Russia on the east ; and on the north by Prussia and the Baltic. Situa ted between 30' north latitude, and between 16° and 32° 10' east longitude, its greatest length, from Domes Ness on the north-west to the extreme south-cast point, was 660 miles; and its greatest breadth, from cast to west, was 620, its superficial extent being estimated at 284,000 square miles; and the population amounted to 15,000,000, ave raging about 53 to the square mile.
The crown of Poland, with the exception of five cen turies previous to the year 1370, was purely elective. Its sovereigns, whose authority before the era just mentioned was unlimited and absolute, were originally termed duces, dukes, or generals, in reference to the almost invariable practice of their conducting the armies of the state to the field in person. In the 14th century, the nobles availed themselves of the weakness of a female reign to diminish the power of their sovereign, and to extend that of their own order. They enacted that no taxes should be levied, that no new laws should be passed,—in short, that no mea sure of any importance should, as formerly, be effected by the king, but by representatives chosen from among them selves. Hence the origin of the Diets of Poland, of which there were two kinds, Ordinary and Extraordinary, the former statedly assembled once in two years, while the latter was summoned by the king only on great emergen cies. The Diets consisted of the king, the senators, and
deputies from provinces and towns, amounting altogether to about four hundred members. These assemblies could sit only for a limited time, and any individual, however hum ble, had the power of calling for a division of the meeting on any question, and one dissentient voice had the effect of rendering the whole deliberations ineffectual. This latter right, which was termed liberum veto, and which was repeatedly exercised, was the cause of the greatest calamities, and often of much bloodshed. Without the unanimous consent of the Diet, the king could determine no question of importance, could not declare war, make peace, raise levies, employ auxiliaries, or admit foreign troops into his dominions, with other restrictions, which almost extinguished the regal authority. Nor did the no bility stop here. Having thus undermined the power of the king, there was but one step more to gain to them selves the uncontrolled government of the nation, namely, to render the throne elective. This was accordingly ac complished; and the king of Poland enjoyed now the title, but little of the power or dignity of a free sovereign. Liberty, so much boasted of by the Poles, seems from this period to have been confined to the nobles alone. They arrogated an unlimited sway over their respective territo ries; 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 for tresses for their private defence, and of maintaining a mi litary force, which, in imitation of regal dignity, they caus ed 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 privi lege of purchasing or inheriting property in land. The nobility, amounting to about 500,000 individuals, Mahe Brun emphatically terms the sovereign body of Poland.