ſon was elected, and brought back in great pomp to Venice: he became ſoon a tyrant and a monſter, and the people tore him to pieces, but took no meaſure to frame a legal government. The city increaſed in commerce, and by conqueſts, and the new ſubjects were not admitted to the privileges of citizens: this acceſſion of dominion augmented the influence of the doge. There was no aſſembly but that of the people, and another called the council of forty, for the adminiſtration of juſtice. This body, in the twelfth century, formed ſomething like a plan of government.
Although the deſcendants of the ancient tribunes and doges were generally rich, and had a ſpontaneous reſpect ſhewn to the antiquity of their families, they were not properly a nobility, having no legal rights, titles, or juriſdictions. As any citizen might be elected to a public office, and had a vote in the aſſemblies, it was neceſſary for the proudeſt among them to cultivate the good will of the multitude, who made and murdered doges. Through all theſe conteſts and diſſenſions among a multitude, always impatient, often capricious, demanding, at the ſame time, all the promptitude and ſecrecy of an abſolute monarchy, with all the licence of a ſimple democracy, two things wholly contradictory to each other, the people had, to their honour, ſtill maintained their right of voting in aſſembly, which was a great privilege, and nobody had yet dared to aim a blow at this acknowledged right of the people.
The council of forty now ventured to propoſe a plan like that of Mr. Hume in his idea of a perfect commonwealth, and like that which our
