book Lings.; and, as many curious circumftarices attend their int
' .ferment, I ihall take this opportunity of laying the ceremony
before the reader.
Since Warfaw has become the royal reiidence, and the
place for the election of the kings of Poland, the body of
the deceafed prince muft be carried firft to that city, where
it remains until the nomination of the new fovereign has
■taken place ; it is then tranfported in great ftate to Cracow,
and, two days before the day appointed for the ceremony of
the coronation, the king eledt, preceded by the great officers
of ftate, with their rods of office pointing to the ground,
joins the funeral proceffion as it paffes through the ftreets,
and follows the body to the church of St. Staniflaus, where
the burial fervice is performed : the remains are then de-
pofited in the cathedral adjoining to the palace. It is peculiar
to the laws of Poland, that the funeral of the deceafed
monarch fhould immediately precede the coronation of the
new fovereign; and that the king eledt fhould be under a
neceffity of attending the obfequies of his predeceftbr. Hif-
torians have fagely remarked, that this lingular cuftom was
inftituted, in order to imprefs the new king with the uncertainty
of human grandeur; and to remind him of his,duty,
by mixing the horrors of death with the pomp and dignity
of his new ftation ; yet we cannot but obferVe, that this precaution
has not hitherto been productive of any vifible effects,
as it does not appear that the kings of Poland have governed
with greater wifdom and juftice than other potentates.
But it is moft probable, that this cuftom took its rife from
the habits of exterior homage, which the Poles affect to pay
to their fovereign in compenfation for the fubftantial dignity
which they withhold from him : this fpirit of mock-reve-
xence they extend beyond the grave; and while they fcarcely
4 allow
C R A e o w.
allow the reigning king the ihadow of real authority, heap chap.
upon a deceafed monarch every poffible trapping of imperial >__,__i
honour.
' The fepulchres of the kings o f Poland are not diftinguifhed
by any peculiar magnificence: their figures are carved in
marble of no extraordinary workmanihip, and fome are
without infcriptions.
I felt a ftrong fentiment of veneration at approaching the
afhes of Cafimir the Great, whom I confider as one of the
greateft princes that ever adorned a throne. It is not, however,
the brilliancy and magnificence o f his reign,.his-warlike
atchievements, nor even his patronage of the arts and
fciences; but his legiflative abilities,.and his wonderful beneficence
to the inferior clafs of. his fubjedts, that infpired me
with a reverence for his character.
Cafimir was born i n i 3 i o ; and in x333 afcended the
throne of Poland, upon the demife of his father Ladiflaus
Loketec. The Polifh hiftorians dwell with fingular complacency
upon his reign, as the moft glorious, and happy
period of their hiftory; and record with peculiar, pleafure
the virtues and abilities, of this great and amiable monarch :
nor are their praifes the echoes of flattery, for they were
moftly written fubfequent to his death, when another family
was feated upon the throne. In perufing the reign of Ga-
fimir, we can hardly believe that we are reading the hiftory
of the fovereign of a barbarous people in the beginning of .'
the fourteenth century ; it feems as if, by the afcendancy of
his fuperior genius', he had got the ftart of the age in which .
he flourifhed, and had anticipated the knowledge and improvements
of the fhcceeding and more enlightened periods..
From the moment of his acceffion his firft care was to fe-
cure his kingdom againft foreign enemies ; with this view
he