266 ANARCHIA
Turkish War. At the Sejm of Grodno of 1793, the King was persuaded to retract
the offending reforms, and then to sign the Second Partition. In this way, the
'Golden Freedom' was perverted from the very ends which it was originally
designed to prevent. The Liberum Veto, which was supposed to check the abso-
lutist designs of the Polish monarchy, was made to serve the purposes of the
Russian Empire. In theory, it was meant to ensure unity and unanimity; in prac-
tice, in Russian hands, it ensured the perpetuation of chaos. Behind the facade
of the 'Polish Anarchy', the instruments of Russian Autocracy would operate
with impunity.
The assumptions which governed constitutional life in the Republic were mir-
rored in the realm of public law. In Polish eyes, the Law, like the constitution,
was too precious a commodity to be left in the hands of the executive author-
ities. In the world of perfect freedom, the threat of injustice was thought to be
greater in the long run from the mindless impetus of organized institutions than
from the intemperance of individuals. Hence, the law was not to be enforced by
the state. Justice was to be exacted by those whose wrong had been recognized
in the courts, and on occasion by the nobility acting in unison, but never by the
magistrates, or by royal officials. If this meant that the law was frequently defied
in particular cases, the evil was judged to be small, and temporary. To this way
of thinking, those countries which appointed law-enforcement officers respon-
sible to the state, were trading the minor advantage of smooth, legal adminis-
tration, in exchange for a permanent threat to the liberty of their citizens. For
this reason, in Poland-Lithuania, there was never any Star Chamber; there was
no Oprichnina on the Muscovite model, and no one who might have introduced
it.^20
As in all medieval systems, the competence of the various courts of law was
carefully separated. The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts extended in civil
and criminal cases to the lands, serfs, and clergy of the Church, and in spiritual
matters to the whole population. There, canon law was applied. The jurisdic-
tion of the manorial courts was restricted to the internal affairs of the estates of
the nobility, and was ruled by local customary law. The jurisdiction of the
municipal courts extended to the territories of the chartered cities, and to the
freemen of the city. There, municipal legal codes based on the German
Magdeburg Law were in force. The jurisdiction of the Jewish courts applied
exclusively to disputes within the Jewish estate, and was administered by the
kahal according to Hebraic Law. The jurisdiction of the royal courts applied to
the lands, serfs, and servants of the Crown; to disputes between noblemen; and
to cases involving members of different estates. At the local level, the sqd ziem-
ski and sqd grodzki were district courts administered respectively by the royal
Starosta or by the royal Castellan. In addition, in accordance with the principle
of legal autonomy, each of the great Officers-of-State maintained a court to try