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[115] 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[116] 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[117] 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[118] 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;[119] 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,[120] 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[121] 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[122] 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[123] 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[124] 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[125] 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 ?conomy 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,[126] 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[127] 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.
