The Polish nobles, as recently stated, paid no taxes; and the national revenue, which never exceeded £1,000,000 of our currency, was drawn from the most sterile sources : from the royal domains, which were always held as fiefs by noblemen, at an extremely low rate ; from taxes extorted from the miserable peasantry ; from the capitation impost on the Jews ; from the customs, excise and stamps of a coun try without commerce ; and from other departments of in dustry equally unproductive. The revenue, thus small in its amount, and the collection of which was distinguish ed by the grossest injustice and cruelty, exhibited the striking features of an unprosperous country. In 1767, it did not cover the expenditure by £250,000 ; in nine years afterwards, the annual deficiency was double that sum ; and though at various periods new taxes were imposed, the revenue, at its most flourishing state, (only £936,000) did not come within £130,000 of the expenditure.
It is impossible that, in such circumstances, the mili tary state of the nation could be adequately supported. This evil, which was felt in every age of the republic, proved peculiarly disastrous towards the end of last centu ry, as the neighbouring powers then possessed a regular standing army, before which the raw, undisciplined troops of Poland, with all their bravery, were obliged to give way. In 1788, when it was determined to raise the army to 100,000 men, the measure was found totally impracti cable, on account of the niggardly scantiness of the reve nue. And called upon, as the Poles then were, by every inducement calculated to alarm and arouse a brave and suffering people ; when not merely the glory of their na tion, but its very existence, was at stake, all the troops they could muster, after three years' exertion, never ex ceeded 60,000, of whom, it is thought not more than 40,000 actually appeared in the field.
But the true constitutional force of Poland was the Pos polite, that is, the union of the whole inhabitants capable of bearing arms, under the banners of their several palati nates. This force, when it could be called into action at the very moment it was required, was found to be irresis tible. The privilege of summoning the pospolite belong ed originally to the sovereign ; but when the nobles, in the frenzy of their zeal to add to their own power at the ex pence of that of their king, deprived him of this privi lege, they rendered the assembling of this force a process so tedious and complicated, that the danger which they were intended to avert had often taken place ere they could be brought into action. The pospolite besides, pro bably from the same circumstances, lost at length that high character for courage and patriotism given them so liberally by ancient historians. Their celebrated defeat,
unber the Duke D'Ostrog, palatine of Sandomir, in 1647, and their conduct under King Casimir, in 1651, have ren dered them almost ridiculous even in the eyes of the Poles themselves. They were assembled, for the last time, about twenty years after the period last mentioned, to the num ber of 100,000, but they no sooner beheld the enemy ad vancing, than they fled tumultuously before them, though they had their king at their head, and though the illustri ous Sobieski, with 35,000 regular troops, was with them, to support and encourage them.
The Poles, it may be stated, had anciently no military force except the pospolite. The first standing army, call ed Kivarciune, was organized in 1562, and paid out of the fourth part of the revenues of the crown lands. The Cos sacks, in the reign of Stephen Batthori, performed a regu lar service in guarding the frontiers of the Ukraine and Podolia from the inroads of the Turks and Tartars ; and, finally, the royal guards, with their military attendants and the staff of nobility, formed a considerable regular force, ready for the field on the shortest notice. These bodies, however, the Poles never regarded as of great or perma nent importance ; and the pospolite formed the protection of the kingdom till, as just mentioned, they forfeited all confidence by their ignorance and pusillanimity.
Poland formed a district of ancient Sarmatia ; and was successively ravaged by those various hordes of barbarians who plundered the south of Europe, and overturned the Roman empire. Its early history, like that of most other nations, is involved in obscurity and fable. That it ori ginally consisted of several independent principalities is sufficiently evident ; but the period when it became incor porated under one sovereign is not clearly ascertained. It was, for many ages, according to the opinion of the best writers, governed by an elective chief, bearing the title of duke, or general ; but no regular dynasty was established until the accession of Piaste in 840. Of this election, which however did not take place till the state was on the very verge of ruin, in consequence of the hostility and ob stinacy of two rival factions, the Polish nation had much reason to be proud. The wise administration of this prince restored peace and tranquillity among all orders of the state ; and, after a reign of twenty years, spent in ad vancing the true interests of his subjects, he died in 860, at a very venerable old age. So dear was his memory to the Poles, that, until last century, they gave his name to his successors in the throne (Piastes)who were natives of the kingdom.