It may be said that this results from Russian invasions;--but it was so _before_ Russian invasions. It may be said that it results from Russian oppression,--but the great central districts of Russia are just as much under the Czar, and they are thriving. It may be said that Poland has been wasted by war;--but Belgium and Holland and the Rhine Palatinate have been far more severely wasted, yet their towns are hives, and their country districts gardens. Next, as to the _Political_ condition. A man-mastering caste necessarily develops the individual will morbidly and intensely. The most immediate of political consequences is, of course, a clash between the individual will and the general will. Trouble then breaks forth in different forms in different countries. In Spain we saw it take shape in _Secession_;--in Italy we saw it lead to fearful territorial _Disunion_;--in Poland it first took the form of _Nullification_. The nullifying spirit naturally crystallized into an institution. That institution was the _Liberum Veto_. By this, in any national assemblage--no matter how great, no matter how important,--the veto of a single noble could stop all proceedings. Every special interest of every petty district or man had power of life and death over the general interest. The whim, or crotchet, or spite of a single man could and did nullify measures vital to the whole nation. In 1652, Sizinski, a noble sitting in the national diet, when great measures were supposed to be unanimously determined upon, left his seat, signifying his dissent. The whole vast machinery was stopped, and Poland made miserable.[33] Closely allied to this was another political consequence. Constant, healthful watchfulness over rights is necessary in any republic; but there is a watchfulness which is not healthful; it is the morbid watchfulness--the jealousy which arises in the minds of a superior caste, _living generally in contact with inferiors, and only occasionally in contact with equals_. The Polish citizen lived on his estate. About him were inferiors,--beings who were not citizens--depending on him--doing him homage. But when the same citizen entered that Assembly on the Plains of Volo all this was changed. There he met his equals. Pride then clashed with pride,--faction rose against faction. The result I will not state in my own words, for fear it may be thought I warp facts to make a historical parallel. I shall translate word for word from Salvandy: "_Confederations_ were now formed--armed leagues of a number of nobles who chose for themselves a Marshal or President, and opposed decrees to decrees, force to force; contending diets which raised leader against leader, and had the King sometimes as chief, sometimes as captive; an institution deplorable and insensate, which opened to all discontented men a legal way to set their country on fire."[34] From the political causes I have named logically flowed another.