ns. It is not our intention to explain
in detail the elaborate process by which the Venetians carried out their
political elections; such an explanation would carry us beyond our
scope, which is to state the position and functions of each member in
the constitution of the Republic. But, briefly, the process was this.
The law required either two or four competitors for every vacant
magistracy, and the election to that magistracy was said to take place
_a due_ or _a quattro mani_, respectively. If the office to be filled
required _quattro mani_, the whole body of the Great Council balloted
for four groups of nine members each, who were chosen by drawing a
golden ball from among the silver ones in the balloting urn. Each of
these groups retired to a separate room, and there each group elected
one candidate to go to the poll for the vacant office. The names of the
four candidates were then presented to the Council and balloted. The
candidate who secured the largest number of votes, above the half of
those present, was elected to the vacant office. Thus the election to
the magistracy was a triple process; first, the election of the
nominators, then the election of the candidates, and finally the
election to the office.

The Great Council, as representing the whole Republic, possessed certain
judicial functions, which were used on rare occasions only, when the
State believed itself placed in grave danger through the fault of its
commanders. The famous case of Vettor Pisani, after his defeat at Pola,
in 1379, and the case of Antonio Grimani, in the year 1499, were both
sent to the Grand Council, who passed sentence on those generals. But,
broadly speaking, the judicial functions of the Maggior Consiglio hardly
existed, its legislative functions dwindled away, and were absorbed by
the Senate, and its chief duty and prerogative lay in the election of
almost every State official.

Coming now to the second tier in the pyramid of the constitution, the
Senate, or Pregadi,--the invited, we find that the Senate proper was
composed of sixty members, elected in the Great Council, six at a time.
The elections took place once a week, and were so arranged that they
should be complete by the first of October in each year. In addition to
the Senate proper, another body of sixty, called the _Zonta_ or
addition, was elected by the outgoing Senate at the close of its year of
office; but it was necessary that the names of the _Zonta_ should be