book pendent of the king’s authority; royal fiefs; the great nobility
v J t—' above controul; the nobles or gentry alone free and pofief-
fing lands, feudal tenures, military fervices, territorial jurisdiction
; commerce degrading; opprefled condition of the
burghers; vaffalage of the peafants. In the courfe of this,
book I have had occafion to make mention of moil of thefe
evils as ftill exifting in Poland, and they may be confidered
as the radical caufes of its decline ; for, they have prevented
the Poles from adopting thofe more liable regulations, which,
tend to introduce order and good government, to augment
commerce, and to increafe population,
T R AT
R A V E L S
I N T O
P O L A N D .
B O O K IL
C II A P. I.
Entrance into Auftrian Poland.— Limits o f the difmembered
province.■— Its population dnd productions.— Arrival at
'Cracow.— Defcription o f that city.— Univerfity.— .Palace.
-— Citadel occupied by the confederates in the late troubles.
■— Hijlory o f that tranfaffion.-^Cathedral.-— Tombs and
character's of feveral Polifh fovereigns., See.
JULY 24, 1778-. We entered Poland juft beyond Bilitz, jgjp-
having crofted the rivulet Biala, which falls into the | „— >
Viftula, and purfued our journey to Cracow through the
territories which the houfe of Auilria fecured to itfelf in the
late partition.
The diftricSt claimed by the emprefs o f Germany in her
tnanifefto is thus defcribed : “ All that trail of land lying
u on the right fide of the Viftula from Silefia above Sando-
X 2 “ nair