little and great council, having for chiefs two avoyers, who are alternately regents. There are five hundred citizens in the town, from whom a council of one hundred are choſen, who are nominally the ſovereignty; out of this body are formed the two diviſions, the little council, ſenate, or council of ſtate, confiding of thirty-ſix members, divided into two equal parts of eighteen each, one of which makes choice of the other every half year. The whole power is actually exerciſed by this body, the two diviſions of which adminiſter the government by turns. They are ſubject to no controul, are neither confirmed by the ſovereign council, nor by the citizens; the diviſion which retires confirming that which comes in. As the vacancies in the ſenate are filled up by themſelves, all power is in poſſeſſion of a few Patrician families. The ſfon ſucceeds the father, and the brother his brother.
The grand council conſiſts of ſixty-four perſons, taken from the citizens, who are ſaid to have their privileges; but it is hard to gueſs what they are, as the elections are made by the little and great council conjointly.
The adminiſtration, the police, the finances, and the whole executive power, is in the ſenate, which is conſtantly ſitting.
The grand council is aſſembled only upon particular occaſions, for the purpoſe of legiſlation. The ſenate has cognizance of criminal cauſes, but in capital cafes the grand council is convoked to pronounce ſentence: in civil cauſes an appeal lies from the ſenate to the grand council; but theſe appeals can be but mere forms, the ſame ſenators being in both courts.
As the ſenate conſtitutes above a third of the grand council, chooe their own members, confer
