The Polish nobility are eager for glory, keen on the spoils of war, contemptuous of danger and death, inconstant in their promises, hard on their subjects and people of the lower orders, careless in speech, used to living beyond their means, faithful to their monarch, devoted to farming and cattle-breeding, courteous to foreigners and guests, and lavish in hospitality, in which they exceed other nations.

You should know that Poland is made up of different provinces which are like individual kingdoms. It is so extensive that if you wanted to traverse the space from the extreme limits of Lithuania, which border on Muscovy, to the foothills of the Carpathians, you would need a whole month. And in another direction, calculate how far removed is the mouth of the Dnieper on the Black Sea from the Baltic coast. Therefore I ask: when the representatives of so many peoples, who differ in their past and in their level of prosperity and who are not linked by bonds of family or relationship, is it possible, I ask, when their representatives meet in the Sejm that they can be inspired by a single common idea?