titution might be disposed to believe. It was composed of
all the archbishops and bishops, the waiwodes and castellans, i.e. the
titled nobility, and the principal ministers of the king. It was thus
in some measure the organ of the government and of the clergy, in
opposition to the national representatives or the mass of the
nobility. This body was not established until towards the close of the
fifteenth century. Before 1466-70, every nobleman who chose, made his
personal appearance in the senate at the summons of the king; but
Casimir, the son of Jagello, in his frequent want of money and men,
repeated these summons so often, that the nobility found personal
appearance inconvenient, and selected in their provincial conventions
_nuntii_, to represent the nation, or rather the nobility; without
however giving up the right of personal attendance. The _nuntii_,
whose number was not fixed, were bound to appear, had the right to
grant or to refuse duties, and to act as the advisers of the king. In
1505 the law was passed, that without their consent the constitution
could not be changed. At the diet in A.D. 1652 it occurred for the
first time, that a single _nuntius_ opposed and annulled by his
_liberum veto_ the united resolutions of the whole convention. On this
example a regular right was very soon founded and acknowledged.
Deputies of cities were occasionally invited to the diet, but only in
extraordinary cases.]

[Footnote 20: Preface to Vuk's Servian Grammar, p. xxiii.]

[Footnote 21: See Schaffarik, _Geschichte_, p. 414, Bautkie's
_Geschichte der Krakauer Buchdruckereyen_.]

[Footnote 22: It was afterwards reinstated in the form of a large
gymnasium by one of chancellor Zamoyski's descendants, and removed to
Szczebrzeszyn. See Letter on Poland, Edinb. 1823, p. 95.]

[Footnote 23: See Schaffarik, _Geschichte_, p. 426.]

[Footnote 24: Whether Copernicus is to be called a Pole or a German
has been and is still a matter of dispute, and has been managed on the
side of the Poles with the utmost bitterness and passion. The Poles
have recently given expression to their claim upon him by erecting to
him a monument at Cracow, and celebrating the third centennial
anniversary of the completion of his system of the world, which took
place in A.D. 1530. Let the question respecting Copernicus be decided
as it may, Poland may doubtless lay claim to many other eminent
natural philosophers as her sons; e.g. Vitellio-Ciolek, who was