It is then a great error to suppose that the government of the
concurrent majority is impracticable; or that it rests on a feeble
foundation. History furnishes many examples of such governments; and
among them one in which the principle was carried to an extreme that
would be thought impracticable, had it never existed. I refer to that of
Poland. In this it was carried to such an extreme that in the election
of her kings, the concurrence or acquiescence of every individual of the
nobles and gentry present, in an assembly numbering usually from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand, was required to make a
choice; thus giving to each individual a veto on his election. So
likewise every member of her Diet (the supreme legislative body),
consisting of the King, the Senate, bishops and deputies of the nobility
and gentry of the palatinates, possessed a veto on all its proceedings;
thus making a unanimous vote necessary to enact a law or to adopt any
measure whatever. And as if to carry the principle to the utmost extent,
the veto of a single member not only defeated the particular bill or
measure in question, but prevented all others passed during the session
from taking effect. Further the principle could not be carried. It in
fact made every individual of the nobility and gentry a distinct element
in the organism; or to vary the expression, made him an _estate of the
kingdom_. And yet this government lasted in this form more than two
centuries, embracing the period of Poland's greatest power and renown.
Twice during its existence she protected Christendom, when in great
danger, by defeating the Turks under the walls of Vienna, and
permanently arresting thereby the tide of their conquests westward.
It is true her government was finally subverted, and the people
subjugated, in consequence of the extreme to which the principle was
carried; not however because of its tendency to dissolution _from
weakness_, but from the facility it afforded to powerful and
unscrupulous neighbors to control by their intrigues the election of her
kings. But the fact that a government in which the principle was carried
to the utmost extreme not only existed, but existed for so long a period
in great power and splendor, is proof conclusive both of its
practicability and its compatibility with the power and permanency of
government.