Venice.
The minds of the Venetians were not so totally engrossed by commercial
ideas, as to make them neglect other means of aggrandizing their state.
All Istria submitted itself to their government: many of the free towns
of Dalmatia, harassed by the Narentines, a nation of robbers and pirates
on that coast, did the same. Those towns which refused, were reduced to
obedience, by Peter Urseolo, the Doge of Venice, who had been sent with a
fleet against them, in the year 1000. He carried his arms also into the
country of the Narentines, and destroyed many of their towns.
On his return it was determined, in a general assembly of the people,
that the conquered towns and provinces should be governed by magistrates
sent from Venice. Those magistrates called Podestas, were appointed
by the Doge. The inhabitants of those new-acquired towns were not
admitted to the privileges of citizens of Venice, nor allowed to vote
at the general assembly: the same rule was observed with regard to the
inhabitants of all the dominions afterwards acquired by the republic.
It will readily occur, that this accession of dominions to the state
greatly augmented the influence and power of the chief magistrate: this,
and the practice of associating the son of the Doge with his father,
raised jealousies among the people, and a law was made, abolishing such
associations for the future.
In the year 1173, after the assassination of the Doge Michieli, a far
more important alteration took place in the government. At this time
there was no other tribunal at Venice than that of forty judges. This
court had been established many years before: it took cognizance of all
causes, civil as well as criminal, and was called the council of forty.
This body of men, in the midst of the disorder and confusion which
followed the murder of the Doge, formed a plan of new-modelling the
government.
Hitherto the people had retained great privileges. They had votes in
the assemblies; and, although the descendants of the ancient tribunes,
and of the Doges, formed a kind of nobility, yet they had no legal
privileges, or exclusive jurisdiction; nothing to distinguish them from
their fellow-citizens, but what their riches, or the spontaneous respect
paid to the antiquity of their families, gave them. Any citizen, as well
as they, might be elected to a public office. To acquire the honours of
the state, it was absolutely necessary for the greatest and proudest
Venetian, to cultivate the good-will of the multitude, whose voice
alone could raise him to the rank of Doge, and whose rage had thrown so
many from that envied situation. The inconveniences, the discord, and
confusion, of such a mixed multitude, had been long felt, but nobody had
hitherto had the boldness to strike at this established right of the
people.
The city was divided into six parts, called Sestiers. The council of
forty procured it to be established, in the first place, that each of
those sestiers should annually name two electors; that those twelve
electors should have the right of choosing, from the whole body of the
people, four hundred and seventy counsellors, who should be called the
Grand Council, and who should have the same power, in all respects, which
the general assembly of the people formerly enjoyed.
It was pretended, that this regulation was contrived merely to prevent
confusion, and to establish regularity in the great national assembly;
that the people’s right of election remained as before, and, by changing
the counsellors yearly, those who were not elected one year might retain
hopes of being chosen the next. The people did not perceive that this law
would be fatal to their importance: it proved, however, the foundation of
the aristocracy, which was soon after established, and still subsists.
The forty judges next proposed another regulation, still more delicate
and important. That, to prevent the tumults and disorders which were
expected at the impending election of a Doge, they should (for that time
only) name eleven commissioners, from those of the highest reputation for
judgment and integrity in the state; that the choice of a Doge should be
left to those commissioners, nine suffrages being indispensably requisite
to make the election valid.
This evidently pointed at the exclusion of the people from any concern
whatever in the creation of the chief magistrate, and certainly was the
object in view; yet, as it was proposed only as a temporary expedient, to
prevent disorders, when men’s minds were irritated against each other,
and factions ran high, the regulation was agreed to.
Having, with equal dexterity and success, fixed those restraints on
the power of the people, the council of forty turned their attention,
in the next place, towards limiting the authority of the Doge. This
was considered as too exorbitant, even for good men; and, in the hands
of wicked men, had always been perverted to the purposes of tyranny,
and for which no remedy had hitherto been found, but what was almost
as bad as the evils themselves; revolt on the part of the people, and
all the horrors and excesses with which such an expedient is usually
accompanied. The tribunal of forty therefore proposed, that the grand
council should annually appoint six persons, one from each division of
the city, who should form the privy council of the Doge, and, without
their approbation, none of his orders should be valid; so that, instead
of appointing his own privy-council, which had been the custom hitherto,
the authority of the chief magistrate would, for the future, in a great
measure, depend on six men, who, themselves, depended on the grand
council. To be constantly surrounded by such a set of counsellors,
instead of creatures of his own, however reasonable it may seem in the
eyes of the impartial, would have been considered by one in possession of
the dignity of Doge, as a most intolerable innovation, and probably would
have been opposed by all his influence; but there was no Doge existing
when the proposal was made, and consequently it passed into a law with
universal approbation.
Lastly, it was proposed to form a senate, consisting of sixty members,
which were to be elected, annually, out of the grand council. This
assembly was in the room of that which the Doge formerly had the power
of convocating, on extraordinary occasions, by sending messages, praying
certain citizens to come, and assist him with their advice. The members
of the new senate, more fixed and more independent than those of the old,
are still called the Pregadi. This also was agreed to without opposition;
and immediately after the funeral of the late Doge, all those regulations
took place.
They began by choosing the grand council of four hundred and seventy,
then the senate of sixty, then the six counsellors, and lastly, the
eleven electors. These last were publicly sworn, that in the election
now entrusted to them, rejecting every motive of private interest, they
should give their voices for that person, whose elevation to the dignity
of Doge they believed, in their consciences, would prove most for the
advantage of the State.
After this, they retired to a chamber of the palace, and Orio Malipier,
one of the eleven, had the votes of his ten colleagues; but he, with a
modesty which seems to have been unaffected, declined the office, and
used all his influence with the electors to make choice of Sebastian
Ziani, a man distinguished in the republic on account of his talents, his
wealth, and his virtues; assuring them that, in the present emergency,
_he_ was a more proper person than himself for the office. Such was their
opinion of Malipier’s judgment, that his colleagues adopted his opinion,
and Ziani was unanimously elected.
As this mode of election was quite new, and as there was reason to
imagine that the bulk of the people, on reflection, would not greatly
approve of it, and that the new Doge would not be received with the usual
acclamations, Ziani took care that great quantities of money should be
thrown among the multitude, when he was first presented to them. No Doge
was ever received with louder acclamations.
During the reign of Ziani, the singular ceremony of espousing the sea was
first instituted.
Pope Alexander the Third, to avoid the resentment of the emperor Frederic
Barbarossa, had taken refuge at Venice, and was protected by that State.
The emperor sent a powerful fleet against it, under the command of his
son Otho. Ziani met him with the fleet of Venice. A very obstinate
engagement ensued, in which the Venetians were victorious. The Doge
returned in triumph, with thirty of the enemy’s vessels, in one of
which was their commander Otho. All the inhabitants of Venice rushed to
the sea shore, to meet their victorious Doge: the Pope himself came,
attended by the senate and clergy. After embracing Ziani, his Holiness
presented him with a ring, saying, with a loud voice, “Take this ring;
use it as a chain to retain the sea, henceforth, in subjection to the
Venetian empire; espouse the sea with this ring, and let the marriage be
solemnized annually, by you and your successors, to the end of time, that
the latest posterity may know that Venice has acquired the empire of the
waves, and that the sea is subjected to you, as a wife is to her husband.”
As this speech came from the head of the church, people were not
surprised to find it a little mysterious; and the multitude, without
considering whether it contained much reason or common sense, received
it with the greatest applause. The marriage has been regularly celebrated
every year since that time.
After the death of Ziani, if the terms which had been agreed upon
previous to the election, had been literally adhered to, the grand
council of four hundred and seventy would have proceeded to choose a
Doge, simply by the plurality of votes; but, for some reason which is not
now known, that method was waved, and the following adopted. Four persons
were chosen by the grand council, each of whom had the power of naming
ten; and the whole forty had the appointing of the Doge.
Their choice fell upon the same Orio Malipier, who had declined the
dignity in favour of his friend Ziani.
Under the administration of Malipier, two new forms of magistracy were
created; the first was that of the Avogadors. Their duty is to take care
that the laws in being shall be punctually executed; and while it is
the business of other magistrates to proceed against the transgressors
of the laws, it is theirs to bring a process against those magistrates
who neglect to put them in execution. They decide also on the nature
of accusations, and determine before which of the courts every cause
shall be brought, not leaving it in the power of either of the parties
to carry a cause to a high court, which is competent to be tried by one
less expensive; and no resolution of the grand council, or senate, is
valid, unless, at least, one of the three Avogadors be present during
the deliberation. It is also the duty of the Avogadors to keep the
originals of all the decisions and regulations of the grand council and
senate, and to order them, and all other laws, to be read over, whenever
they think proper, by way of refreshing the memories of the senators.
If the senators are obliged to attend during those lectures, this is a
very formidable power indeed. I am acquainted with senators in another
country, who would sooner give their judges the power of putting them to
death at once, in a less lingering manner.
The second class of magistrates, created at this time, was that called
Judges al Forestieri; there are also three of them. It is their duty to
decide, in all causes between citizens and strangers, and in all disputes
which strangers have with each other. This institution was peculiarly
expedient, at a time when the resort from all countries to Venice was
very great, both on account of commerce, and of the Crusades.
In the year 1192, after a very able administration, Malipier, who was
of a very philosophical turn of mind, abdicated the office of Doge, and
Henry Dandolo was elected in his place.
I am a great deal too much fatigued with the preceding narrative, to
accompany one of his active and enterprising genius at present; and I
have good reason to suspect, that you also have been, for some time past,
inclined to repose.