Page:Constitutional Charter of the Kingdom of Poland, In the Year 1815.pdf/48



This oath was deceptive, and that for want of positive guarantees.

This arrangement opened a vast field for abuses, which we have already referred to, in the observation on Article twenty-six. The decisions of the tribunals in the suits between the government and individuals, if contrary to the former, were often set aside by the Council of state, under pretence of abuse of power and incompetence.

The object of the different branches of the administration should be the execution of the laws; whence it follows that all public affairs should be regulated by laws,—by decrees, that is, of the Diet. Not thus was public business transacted. The most important affairs were determined by Royal ordinances, or by the ordinance of the lieutenant, and even the Ministers arrogated to themselves a part of the legislative authority. Thus in spite of the judicial regulations of the Charter, offences against the revenue laws were tried by Committees of the Palatine Administration; and these committees were composed of members removeable at pleasure, and wholly subservient to the Commission of Finance. Thus the Treasury judged its own cause; nor was this all. The Commission of Finance invented a new penal code for this species of crime. Offenders were condemned to heavy fines, and if unable to discharge the amount, the penalty was commuted for a proportionable length of imprisonment; so that old men who had been convicted of smuggling, were sometimes sentenced to fifty or sixty years of imprisonment,—sometimes even to more. Add to this, that the whole prohibitory system, including the tariff of importation duties, was grounded, not upon a law, but upon an ordinance of the King, or of his lieutnnantlieutenant [sic]. All this