ImIES
I li
S* G O T E R N M E N T O F P O L AN.'D.
BOOK
I.
C H A P. V .
(Government o f Poland,— Legifiative authority poffeffed by the
. diet.-.—Executive power ve/led in the permanent council.-—
Adi fo r the eflablifhment o f that council.— Article I. Arrangement
o f the permanent council.— Conjlituent parts taken
from the three ejlates, the king,fenate, and equefirian order.
— EleSlion o f the members.— Prerogatives o f the king.—
lim itations o f bis authority.— Primate.— Marjhal o f the
.equefirian order.— Article II. Mode o f proceeding.— Its
.five departments.— Foreign affairs.— Police. — War.—
Jufiice.-—Fhe Freafury.— Article III. Power and duties.
— Article IV. Limits o f its authority.— Detail o f the five
departments*
Y I ''HE government of Poland is with great propriety ftyled
, -*■ a republic, becaufe the king is fo exceedingly limited
in his prerogative, that he refembles more the chief of a
^commonwealth, than the fovereign of a powerful monarchy.
The fupreme legiflative authority of this republic relides
in the three eftates of the realm, the king, fenate, and equefirian
order, aftembled in a national diet *. The executive
ipower, which was heretofore entrufted to the king and fenate,
isnow, according to the new form.of government, veiled
in the permanent council.
■* Far an account o f the diet, fee the next chapter.
The
T he afl for the eilabliihment of the permanent council, CHAP-
by the diet of 1 7 7 5, is thus worded. , v' ,
Since the former exiitence of the council ad latus noflrum
in the republic is proved from the antient conftitutions which
mention it,. and nominally from the fixth article in the confirmation
of king Stephen, as well as from the conftitutions *
of 1576, 1590» 1607r 16 4 1 , 1669, 1677, and of 1678:
We therefore eftabliih a national council, a f latus nojlrum, .
compofed of the three orders, namely, o f us the king, the
ftnate, and o f the equeftrian order,-to adtin the manner pre~-
itribed as follows,-
A r t ic l k I.
Arrangement of the Permanent Council.
I. This council lhall bear the title of Supreme Permanent'
Council; It lhall be compofed of the three eftates o f the re- -
public, namely, o f the king,, the fenatê, and the equeftrian ■
order, which lhall be for ever infeparable, excepting during .
an interregnum, or in the king’s abfence, for which a provi-
fion is' hereafter made. -
The firft eftate, the king; as chief of the nation, is never '
changed ; but the other two -eftates diali be eledled, every •’
two years, at the ordinary diet, by thetffiajority of fecret votes,.
in the following; manner.
i . All fenatürs andmirtifters are candidates of courfe. but
the members of the equeftrian order ihalï àddrefs themfelves
to the marihal of the laft diet and, in cafe-of his death or
abfence, to the firft nuntio of the province'from which the
m arili al was taken, .three days before the diet, either in per- -
ion, or by memorials lignee! by themfelves, and féaled-with -
their own coats of arms.
* The laws o f Poland are called conili- o f 1576,'1590, &c. as paired in thé. diets -
tutions, and are denominated conftitutions which affembled in <hofe years; •
In * ■ 2, The