The first person who granted freedom to his peasants
was Zamoiski, formerly grand chancellor, who in 1760 enfranchised six
villages. The Jews were first introduced into Poland about the time of
Casimir the Great; they were indulged with great privileges, and became
so numerous that Poland was styled the Paradise of the Jews. So late as
the thirteenth century, the Poles retained the custom of killing old men
when past their labour, and such children as were born imperfect. "The
natural strength of Poland, if properly exerted, (says a modern writer)
would have formed a more certain bulwark against the ambition of her
neighbours than the faith of treaties;" and it is worthy of remark, that
of the three partitioning powers, Prussia was formerly in a state of
vassalage to the republic; Russia once saw her capital and throne
possessed by the Poles, under Sigismund III. whose troops got possession
of Moscow, and whose son, Ladislaus, was chosen Great Duke of Muscovy,
by a party of the Russian nobles; and Austria was indebted to John
Sobieski, King of Poland, who, in 1683, compelled the Turks to raise the
siege of Vienna, and delivered the house of Austria from the greatest
dangers it ever experienced.
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