Venice.
The senate of Venice, ever jealous of their civil liberty, while they
rejoiced at the vast acquisitions lately made by their fleet and
army, perceived that those new conquests might tend to the ruin of
the constitution, by augmenting the power and influence of the first
magistrate.
In the year 1206, immediately after they were informed of the death of
Dandolo, they created six new magistrates, called Correctors; and this
institution has been renewed at every interregnum which has happened
since.
The duty of those Correctors is, to examine into all abuses which may
have taken place during the reign of the preceding Doge, and report them
to the senate, that they may be remedied, and prevented for the future,
by wholesome laws, before the election of another Doge. At the same time
it was ordained, that the State should be indemnified out of the fortune
of the deceased magistrate, from any detriment it had sustained by his
maladministration, of which the senate were to be the judges. This law
was certainly well calculated to make the Doge very circumspect in his
conduct, and has been the origin of all the future restraints which have
been laid on that very unenviable office.
Men accustomed to the calm and secure enjoyments of private life, are
apt to imagine, that no mortal would be fond of any office on such
conditions; but the senate of Venice, from more extensive views of human
nature, knew that there always was a sufficient number of men, eager to
grasp the sceptre of ambition, in defiance of all the thorns with which
it could be surrounded.
It was not the intention of the Venetian senate to throw the smallest
stain on the character of their late patriotic Doge; nevertheless they
thought the interregnum after his death, the most favourable opportunity
of passing this law; because, when the Inquisition had taken place after
his glorious reign, no Doge could expect that it would ever afterwards be
dispensed with.
The Correctors having been chosen, and the inquisition made, Peter Ziani
was elected Doge. In his reign a court for civil causes, denominated
the Tribunal of Forty, was created. Its name sufficiently explains the
intention of establishing this court, to which there is an appeal from
the decisions of all inferior magistrates in civil causes tried within
the city. It is to be distinguished from the court of Forty, formerly
mentioned, whose jurisdiction was now confined to criminal causes: it
afterwards got the name of _old_ civil council of Forty, to distinguish
it from a third court, consisting also of forty members, which was
established at a subsequent period, to decide, by appeal, in all civil
causes, from the judgments of the inferior courts without the city of
Venice.
Towards the end of his life, about the year 1228, Ziani abdicated his
office. At the election of his successor, the suffrages were equally
divided, between Rainier Dandolo, and James Theipolo. This prolonged the
interregnum for two months; as often as they were balloted, during that
time, each of them had twenty balls. The senate, at last, ordained them
to draw lots, which decided in favour of Theipolo.
During his administration, the Venetian code was, in some degree,
reformed and abridged. One of the greatest inconveniences of freedom,
is the number of laws necessary to protect the life and property of
each citizen; the natural consequences of which are, a multitude of
lawyers, with all the suits and vexations which they create; “les peines,
les déspenses, les longueurs, les dangers mêmes de la justice,” says
Montesquieu, “sont le prix que chaque citoyen donne pour sa liberté.” The
more freedom remains in a State, of the higher importance will the life
and property of each citizen be considered. A despotic government counts
the life of a citizen as of no importance at all.
The Doge Theipolo, who had himself been a lawyer, as many of the
Venetian nobles at that time were, bestowed infinite labour in arranging
and illuminating the vast chaos of laws and regulations in which the
jurisprudence of a republic, so jealous of her liberty, had been
involved. After a long reign, he abdicated the government; and, to
prevent the inconveniency which had happened at his election, the number
of electors, by a new decree of the senate, was augmented to forty-one.
In the reign of his successor, Marino Marsini, two judges, called
Criminal Judges of the Night, were appointed. Their function is to
judge of what are called nocturnal crimes, under which denomination are
reckoned robberies, wilful fire, rapes, and bigamy. We find also, that
Jews lying with Christian women, is enumerated among nocturnal crimes;
though, by an unjustifiable partiality, a Christian man lying with a
Jewish woman, whether by night or day, is not mentioned as any crime at
all.
A few years after, in the reign of the Doge Rainier Zeno, four more
judges were added to this tribunal; and, during the interregnum which
took place at his death, in the year 1268, a new form of electing the
Doge was fixed, which, though somewhat complicated, has been observed
ever since.
All the members of the grand council, who are past thirty years of age,
being assembled in the hall of the palace, as many balls are put into an
urn as there are members present; thirty of these balls are gilt, and the
rest white. Each counsellor draws one; and those who get the gilt balls,
go into another room, where there is an urn, containing thirty balls,
nine of which are gilt. The thirty members draw again; and those who,
by a second piece of good fortune, get the gilt balls, are the _first
electors_, and have a right to choose forty, among whom they comprehend
themselves.
Those forty, by balloting in the same manner as in the former instances,
are reduced to twelve _second electors_, who choose twenty-five, the
first of the twelve naming three, and the remaining eleven two, a-piece.
All those being assembled in a chamber apart, each of them draws a ball
from an urn, containing twenty-five balls, among which are nine gilt.
This reduces them to nine _third electors_, each of whom chooses five,
making in all forty-five; who, as in the preceding instances, are reduced
by ballot, to eleven _fourth electors_, and they have the nomination of
forty-one, who are the _direct electors_ of the Doge. Being shut up by
themselves, they begin by choosing three chiefs, and two secretaries;
each elector, being then called, throws a little billet into an urn,
which stands on a table before the chiefs. On this billet is inscribed
the person’s name whom the elector wishes to be Doge.
The secretaries then, in the presence of the chiefs, and of the whole
assembly, open the billets. Among all the forty-one there are,
generally, but a very few different names, as the election, for the most
part, balances between two or three candidates. Their names, whatever is
the number, are put into another urn, and drawn out one after another.
As soon as a name is extracted, the Secretary reads it, and, if the
person to whom it belongs is present, he immediately retires. One of the
chiefs then demands, with a loud voice, whether any crime can be laid to
this person’s charge, or any objection made to his being raised to the
sovereign dignity? If any objection is made, the accused is called in,
and heard in his own defence; after which the electors proceed to give
their decision, by throwing a ball into one of two boxes, one of which
is for the Ayes, the other for the Noes. The Secretaries then count
the balls, and if there are twenty-five in the first, the election is
finished; if not, another name is read, and the same inquisition made as
before, till there are twenty-five approving balls.
This form, wherein judgment and chance are so perfectly blended,
precludes every attempt to corrupt the electors, and all cabals for the
Ducal dignity; for who could dream, by any labour or contrivance, of
gaining an election, the mode of whose procedure equally baffles the
address of a politician and a juggler?
Lawrence Theipolo was the first Doge chosen according to this mode. In
his reign the office of Grand Chancellor was created.
Hitherto the public acts were signed by certain persons chosen by the
Doge himself, and called Chancellors; but the Grand Council, which we
find always solicitous to limit the power of the Doge, thought _that_
method improper; and now proposed, that a Chancellor should be appointed
by themselves, with rights and privileges entirely independent of the
Doge. At the same time, as the people had shewn symptoms of discontent,
on account of the great offices being all in the distinguished families,
it was thought expedient to ordain, that the Chancellor should always
be taken from among the Secretaries of the senate, who were citizens.
Afterwards, when the council of ten came to be established, it was
ordained, that the Chancellor might be chosen either from the Secretaries
of that court, or from those of the senate.
The Grand Chancellor of Venice is an officer of great dignity and
importance; he has the keeping of the great seal of the Commonwealth, and
is privy to all the secrets of the State; he is considered as the head
of the order of citizens, and his office is the most lucrative in the
republic; yet, though he must be present at all the councils, he has no
deliberative voice.
In perusing the annals of this republic, we continually meet with
proofs of the restless jealousy of this government; even the private
œconomy of families sometimes created suspicion, however blameless the
public conduct of the matter might be. The present Doge had married a
foreign lady; his two sons followed his example; one of their wives
was a princess. This gave umbrage to the senate; they thought that, by
such means, the nobles might acquire an interest, and connexions, in
other countries, inconsistent with their duty as citizens of Venice;
and therefore, in the interregnum which followed the death of Theipolo,
a law was proposed by the Correctors, and immediately passed, by which
all future Doges, and their sons, were interdicted from marriage with
foreigners, under the pain of being excluded from the office of Doge.
Though the people had been gradually, as we have seen, deprived of their
original right of electing the chief magistrate; yet, on the elections
which succeeded the establishment of the new mode, the Doge had always
been presented to the multitude assembled in St. Mark’s Place, as if
requesting their approbation; and the people, flattered with this small
degree of attention, had never failed to announce their satisfaction
by repeated shouts: but the senate seem to have been afraid of leaving
them even this empty shadow of their ancient power; for they ordained,
that, instead of presenting the Doge to the multitude, to receive
their acclamations, as formerly, a Syndic, for the future, should, in
the name of the people, congratulate the new Doge on his election. On
this occasion, the senate do not seem to have acted with their usual
discernment. Show often affects the minds of men more than substance, as
appeared in the present instance; for the Venetian populace displayed
more resentment on being deprived of this noisy piece of form, than when
the substantial right had been taken from them. After the death of the
Doge John Dandolo, before a new election could take place in the usual
forms, a prodigious multitude assembled in St. Mark’s Place, and, with
loud acclamations, proclaimed James Theipolo; declaring, that this was
more binding than any other mode of election, and that he was Doge to
all intents and purposes. While the senate remained in fearful suspense
for the consequences of an event so alarming and unlooked-for, they
were informed, that Theipolo had withdrawn himself from the city, with
a determination to remain concealed, till he heard how the senate and
people would settle the dispute.
The people, having no person of weight to conduct or head them,
renounced, with their usual fickleness, a project which they had begun
with their usual intrepidity.
The Grand Council, freed from alarm, proceeded to a regular election,
and chose Peter Gradonico, a man of enterprise, firmness, and address,
in whose reign we shall see the dying embers of democracy perfectly
extinguished.