reign aſſembly, the aſſembly of the people, or the council general, is compoſed of all the citizens or freemen of twenty-five years of age.
At the time of the Reformation, every affair, important or trifling, was laid before the general aſſembly; it was both a deliberating and acting body, that always left the cognizance of details to four ſindics: this was neceſſary, in that time of danger, to attach the affections of the citizens to the ſupport of the commonwealth by every endearing tie. The city was governed by two ſindics of its own annual election. The multiplicity of affairs had engaged each ſindic to nominate ſome of the principal citizens to ſerve as aſſeſſors during his adminiſtration; theſe aſſeſſors, called counſellors, formed a council of twenty-five perſons. In 1457 the general council decreed, that the council of twenty-five ſhould be augmented to ſixty. This body, in 1526, was augmented to two hundred.
Thus far the ariſtocratical gentlemen proceeded upon democratical principles, and all is done by the general aſſembly. At this inſtant commences the firſt overt act of ariſtocratical ambition.—Warm in their ſeats, they were loth to leave them, or hold them any longer at the will of the people. With all the ſubtlety, and all the ſagacity and addreſs which is characteriſtic of this order of men in every age and nation, they prevailed on the people to relinquiſh for the future the right of electing counſellors in the general aſſembly; and the people, with their characteriſtic ſimplicity, and unbounded confidence in their rulers when they love them; became the dupes, and paſſed a law, that the two councils ſhould for the future elect, or at leaſt approve and affirm, each
