Note 217 — Chapter VIII · POLISH JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF THE PARTITIONS

[After the first partition of Poland the Government of the country was placed in the hands of a Permanent Council consisting of thirty-six members, who were to be elected by the Diets, and were to take charge of the five departments of the administration: foreign affairs, police, war, justice, and finance. The king was to be the president of the Council. The Diet, which assembled on October 6, 1788, abolished this Permanent Council, and set out to elaborate a modern Constitution, which was finally presented on May 3, 1791. While, according to Polish law, the Diets met only once in two years for six weeks (see above, p. 76, n. 1), the Diet of 1788 declared itself permanent. It sat for four years—hence its name, the Quadrennial Diet—until the adoption of the new Constitution in 1791 led to civil war and to the intervention of Russia.]