in the military establishment of Poland, is the name given to a kind of militia. It is the most numerous and the most useless of the Polish armies.

Coxe's Travels. It consists of the gentry at large, who, in case of invasion, are assembled by a regular summons from the king, with consent of the diet. Every palatinate is divided into districts, over each of which proper officers are appointed; and every person possessing free and noble tenures is bound to military service, either singly or at the head of a certain number of his retainers, according to the extent and nature of his possessions. The troops thus assembled are obliged only to serve for a limited time, and are not under the necessity of marching beyond the limits of their country. They submit to no discipline but such as they like themselves; and are very apt to mutiny if detained more than a fortnight in the place appointed them to meet in, without marching.

The mode of levying and maintaining this army is exactly similar to that practised under the feudal system. At present, though it is almost totally unfit for the purposes of repelling a foreign enemy, it is yet a powerful instrument in the hands of domestic faction; for the expedition with which it is raised under the feudal regulations facilitates the formation of those dangerous confederacies which suddenly start up on the contested election of a sovereign, or whenever the nobles are at variance with each other.

POSSIBLE COMITATUS, in law, signifies the power of the county, or the aid and assistance of all the knights, gentlemen, yeomen, labourers, servants, apprentices, &c., and all others within the county that are above the age of 15, except women, ecclesiastical persons, and such as are decrepit and infirm.

This poss comitatus is to be raised where a riot is committed, a possession kept upon a forcible entry, or any force of rescue used contrary to the king's writ, or in opposition to the execution of justice; and it is the duty of all sheriffs to assist justices of the peace in the suppression of riots, &c., and to raise the poss comitatus, or to change any number of men for that purpose.