LETTER XIX.
VENICE.
My dear Sir,
THE republic of Venice has exited longer than thoſe of Rome or Sparta, or any other that is known in hiſtory. It was at firſt democratical; and their magiſtrates, under the name of tribunes, were choſen by the people in a general aſſembly of them. A tribune was appointed annually, to diſtribute juſtice on each of thoſe iſlands which this people inhabited. Whether this can be called collecting all authority into one center, or whether it was not rather dividing it into as many parcels as there were iſlands, this ſimple form of government ſufficed, in ſo ſmall a community, to maintain order for ſome time; but the tyrannical adminiſtration of the tribunes, and their eternal diſcords, rendered a revolution neceſſary; and after long altercations, and many projects, the people, having no adequate idea of the only natural balance of power among three orders, determined that one magiſtrate ſhould be choſen, as the center of all authority—the eternal reſource of every ignorant people, harraſſed with democratical diſtractions or ariſtocratical encroachments. This magiſtrate muſt not be calked king, but duke, and afterwards doge; he was to be for life, but at his death another was to be choſen; he was to have the nomination of all magiſtrares, and the power of peace and war. The unbounded popularity and great real merit of Paul Luc Anafeſte, added to the preſſure of tribunary tyranny, and the danger of a foreign
