THE BENEFIT OF THE BALLOT: WITH The Nature and Use thereof: Particularly in the Republic of VENICE.  
THe Use or Practice of the Ballot hath been very Ancient in the Eastern Countries; And Postellus conceiveth, that the Venetian use of the Ball, is the same with that, which was of the Lot in the Commonwealth of Israel, and of the Bean in Atthens Cicero himself doth give a very good account, and a very great Encomium of the Table or Ballot of the People of Rome; And certainly Rome nor Carthage had ever attained to their Grandeur and Reputation in the World, had it not been for the Ballot. By this only Art (we had almost said) the Commonwealth of Venice hath preserved itself against the most potent enemies for these 1300 Years; and it hath flourished in the greatest splendour of any State in Europe.  
Where the Ballotting is used, those States are most free from all Factions and Rebellions.  
There, Persons of the most accomplished Parts are advanced for their Integrity and Worth.  
There, Virtue is as speedy a Ladder to climb unto Honour, as Nobility of Birth; and a good Man is as much respected as a great.  
Every one giveth his Election and Vote freely, and that without the fear of Great-ones, or Favour to Friends; But according to the Value and Worth of the Persons, do they give their Suffrages; and for those who are of the most Noble Spirits: Not for persons designing their own private Interest, to the impoverishing of the Public.  
There is not a place for Pensioners, who are the Burrs of a Nation, and the Suckers, which hinder the growth of any State.  
They are very just in their Rewards and Punishments; which rightly laid, do balance Government.  
By these means their Councillors are of great Honour, and Wisdom; For mean Men make it their Masterpiece of Credit, to give venturous Councils, which no great or wise man would or durst: And Princes usually find Instruments more for their Will and Humour, then for their Service and Honour; which never can be so in this State: For they ever prefer safe Councils with Reason, before rash, which only Chance can make prosperous.  
Their management of their Treasure is prudent, and their Officers frugal in the disposal of it; Knowing well, that good husbandry may stand with great Honour, as well as Breadth with Height; And certainly nothing doth consume itself like Prodigality; (which some by mistake call Liberty;) For if it be long used, it takes away the means to continue it, and consequently it does make a State poor; or else to avoid poverty, it's often enforced to oppression, and thereby becomes odious.  
It is necessary (like Venice,) for every State to have a full Treasure, if it be but for the keeping up of its Reputation abroad; For the power of a State is valued according to the fullness of its Purse, rather than the largeness of its Territories.  
The Officers in that State are but few; and they make choice of such as are knowing: For, being rich, they need not abuse the State themselves; and, being knowing, they will not suffer others do do it.  
But in some Monarchies, where there are such multitudes of Officers, (which is a great calamity) they serve for nothing, but to rifle the Prince's Purse; and the fuller they fill their Coffers, the more facile is their Justification, when questioned.  
Neither are they for making of Parties, or for Debaucheries in Elections; as it is observed (to our great grief) in some other places.  
There are no Tumults or noise at their Votes or Suffrages, which in some places are so great, that Strangers (hearing the shouts and noise they make,) have conceived themselves to be at Ephesus.  
That State that useth it, must needs have the greatest advantages against others which use it not: Neither is it possible to be destroyed but by another State, which useth the ●ame.  
Carthage had never been subdued by the Romans, but that the Romans used the Ballot, as well as they themselves; And that makes us often to think, that Venice preserving her ancient Rules and Methods of Balloting, must be immortal.  
Let us consider, that Anno 1508. when the Emperor, and most of the Kings and Princes of Europe entered into a League against Her, (by this one practice) how prudently she behaved herself against them all.  
We need not instance the prudent conduct, and the management of their Affairs against the most formi●●●ble power of the Sultan, which would have been a terror, if not a Confusion, to the greatest Princes of Europe; if we consider the Ottoman power, and the continuance of those Wars; And we are apt to conceive, that by this Art they have done more severe execution, and given the greater disturbance to the Ottoman Forces, than all the Princes of Europe (though all conspired against them) during the Holy War; For by reason of their Divisions, Piques and animosities among themselves (which by the Ballot would easily have been prevented) they never effected any Action of Grandieur; or gained any place but to lose again.  
Whether the Ballot be so practicable in a Monarchy, where all great Offices and Honours are at the disposal of a Prince, and by Him conferred as a reward of Services; We must submit that to their pleasures.  
But certainly to that State wherein it is entertained, the advantages which thereby accrue, must needs be very great; and would be the best expedient to establish Monarchy for ever: For Monarchy can never be destroyed, but by Factions and Divisions, which can never happen in that State where the Ballot is used.  
Galgee the King of Mindao, a Prince who had many Kingdoms and great Dominions, being in a War; and for the better carrying on of the same, assembled his Grand Conciliado, or Convention of States, (for without them no Money could be raised,) which consisted of Magnificoes and Populo's; (as with us in England,) that is, of Lords and Commons. They being assembled, granted many Royal Aids to the King; But being continued together over long, they fell into Parties, (as great Bodies are very apt to do.) Some accusing the most eminent Ministers of State for their ill Council, and male administration of public Affairs; Others opposing the granting of any further Aid, affirming that Taxes and Impositions ought to be in the State, as Sails in a Ship, not to charge and over-lade it, but to conduct and assure it.  
The King finding so many of them to be Troublesome, the better to obtain his own ends, took them off by Honours, Preferments and Pensions; But thereby the King became Indigent, the Subjects miserably poor, and the great Council (which ever used to be a Medicine to heal up any Rupture in a Prince's Fortune,) were grown worse than the Malady, broken into Parties, because others were preferred in Honours before them, who, (as they conceived) were much inferior to themselves in Merit; and commonly the People cannot endure excessive Fortune any where so ill, as in those who have been in equal Degree to them; and nothing begets more disdain, then to see others go before them in the Prince's Favour, who come behind them in Virtue and Worth.  
The Kingdom being in this Distemper, and the King encircled in so many Infelicities; Vanly, a Persian, an excellent Person, and a great friend to Galgee, advised him not to Dissolve his great Council, (for in that Juncture it might hazard his Dominions, and prove fatal to him, it being the great Idol of the People,) but to continue them during his Life; And the better to reconcile all Interests, to cause 30 to be chosen out of the Conciliado to be of his Council Diego Stado, (or Privy Council as we call it;) whereof 15 to be Lords, and 15 to be Commons; and all those to be Elected by themselves by the Ballot, out of the most Virtuous and public Spirited persons amongst them: And every Year 10 of those to be removed out of the Council Di Stado, and to return to the Conciliado or Great Council; and by the Ballot to make choice of other 10 of the most Eminent amongst them for Integrity and Parts.  
King Galgee gave an exact observance to his sober Council, and by these means he united all Parties in his Council; and there was such a due administration of Justice in his Dominions, and such virtuous Persons were chosen for the management of Public Affairs, that in a short time King Galgee became so potent, and beloved of his People, (for that Prince, who will gain their affections, must give them ease and plenty,) that when Badurius, King of C●mbaia, invaded Mindao with an Army of 150000 Horse, and 500000 Foot; that Prince, by the assistance of his own Subjects, and of some mercenary Persians, and Zagathay, defeated and destroyed that great Army.  
Certainly, as it was great wisdom in Vanly to give this Council, so it was great prudence in King Galgee to follow it; for the great Council consisting (or at least presumed to consist) of the most wise, and sufficient Persons, of all his Dominions: the Privy Council, and others, the great Officers of State, being, by the Ballot, chosen out of the most eminent of them for Parts, and Integrity, there must needs be a rare felicity of Government.  
There could be no complaints of the maladministration of the Ministers of State, (which usually makes the greatest noise) they being virtuous and wise, and chosen out of the Ballot by themselves; neither were they, who were advanced to honour, envied (which is ever an Attendant upon Greatness) by any of the Conciliado; because they themselves, in time, might attain to that dignity, if their wisdom and integrity should in worthy them.  
Which was a rare happiness; for great men may secure themselves from guilt, but not from envy: And we have observed, that the greatest in trust of Public Affairs, are ever shot at by the aspire of those, who deem themselves less in employment, than they are in merit.  
Therefore it highly concerns great Ministers of State, to keep Sentinel; for every step they tread is paved with Fate, and every misfortune of theirs commonly procures them as much dishonour, as if they had been perfidious in their practice, and their unhappiness is deemed for a crime.  
Therefore let those, who are raised to the height of their greatness, consider, that Prince's Favours are always perilous; and that it's a difficult thing to stand long firm upon Ice, and that the Fall (how gentle soever) will never suffer them again to rise.  
But King Galgee, by his prudent Government, had a peculiar felicity in his Reign, and established his Dominions upon the Centre of a flourishing happiness; yet we cannot but observe one great Soloecism in point of State, in King Galgee's rewarding so many persons, for being troublesome unto him; for that Prince, who does practise it, shall find, that no sooner he takes off one, but presently another gets up; and it will animate others to do so, when they find such encouragement for being troublesome, and at last, if the Prince be notable to gratify all, (which is impossible for him to do) it may turn to the dissolution of the Government.  
But certainly King Galgee could have no kindness for those persons, he had so advanced, (Preferment being the reward of Virtue, and not to gratify disquiet Spirits) and the People, who are ever jealous of their Rights, must look upon them, as betrayers of their Liberties; and the end of such persons (if one well observe it) is commonly very miserable: And the Subjects never so much repine at their Contributions, as when they observe them to be the rewards of persons, to whom Fortune, not Merit, gives a growth.  
It was a Remark of Henry the Fourth of France, that such persons, who made the greatest noise in the Parliament of Paris, were men of the least sufficiency; but they had soft tongues, and hard faces, they did not vent their own conceits, but the projections and designs of others; and they were like hollow singing Bullets, which usually flew but half way to the Mark; whereas the Designer doth execution, but makes no report.  
It was afterwards observed, that the Successors of this great Galgee, not imitating his excellent Arts of Government, and neglecting the choice of the great Ministers of State by the Ballot; by reason whereof men of no sufficiency were promoted to the highest Offices of State, which gave discouragement to others of more desert; and, by their maladministration, discontent to all: Thereby their Country in a short time, was overcome by Merhamed the Mogul Tartar. Whereas if they had observed the prudentials of Galgee, and used the Ballot, (which had been a Wall of Steel to them) they had been invincible.  
There is no Government but this of the Ballot may suit with, if the Prince, and his great Council, please to make a Law for the practice of it; neither is it any diminution to the Prince's Dignity, to depart with the conferring of Offices; when, by the use of the Ballot, all things will multiply to Honour, and the aggrandizing of his Name.  
For many times it's as fatal to a Prince to have bad Officers under him, as for himself not to be good.  
The Revolt, which was made from Richard the Second, was more for the displeasure taken against Sir John Bushy, Sir William Bagot, and Sir Henry Green, etc. who managed the public Offices under him, than against the King himself.  
For Princes, in the Elections of their Officers, do more respect their particular affections, and to serve their turns, than the sufficiency of the persons elected; and more Kingdoms and Dominions have been overthrown by the ill management of Officers, than by the severity of the greatest Tyrants; and the Investiture of the meanest persons to great Commands, hath often proved fatal to the greatest undertake.  
An Instance whereof is that of James the Fifth of Scotland, who, in the year 1542. invaded England with an Army of 60000 Horse and Foot; and was met with the Lord Wharton, than Warden of the North-West Marches; the Battle being ready to join, one Sir Oliver Synclere, (the Scottish King's Minion, but of no great Extraction, or Skill in Martial Affairs,) was by the King's Order proclaimed General; which the Scottish Nobility took in such indignation, that they threw down their Arms, and suffered themselves to be taken Prisoners; there being not one man slain on either side: Whereas if they had made choice of a Captain-General themselves by the Ballot, one, who had good skill in Martial Affairs, and whom they would willingly have followed; what Actions of Grandeur they might have effected, we leave it to the judicious to consider.  
The Practice, and Method, which the State of Venice useth in their Elections by the Ball, may be read at large in Contarini, Gianotti, and Sansovinus; but in case these Authors be wanting, Mr. John Ray's Observations, printed Anno 1673. will fully inform you, who hath (folio 157.) exactly collected out of the said Authors, all the Observables in their Elections; which would be over-tedious to express here, the same having been performed so particularly, and excellently, by that learned Gentleman.  
We will here set down, in a few lines, somewhat of the Practic Part (for it is used in some Cases with more nicety, than in others) in great Councils of State; we will mention the most facile here.  
The Electors being assembled in some convenient Place, (as a great Hall, etc.) the doors are shut up, and the Prime Officers, who assemble, or call together the Electors, keep the Keys till the Election be over.  
The Syndick, or chief Officer for that purpose, takes the Ballot-Box, and opens it in the view of all the Company, to see that it is empty, and without secret Conveyances; then placeth it on a Table for that purpose, at one end of the Room, and calls such of the Company as he thinks may make most dispatch; gives to each a Ball in the fight of the People, a little Ball made of fine Linen, as at 
* In some Places they use Beans.  Venice; he puts into the Box, either the Affirmative, or Negative, and so departs to one side from the rest; and then he calls the next, and does the like to him, and so of the rest, till all are called; all, who have voted, stand apart by themselves.  
The Box is somewhat long, and hath a partition in the midst, the which hath two holes to drop the Balls in, which are Taper-wise, broader at the top, and narrower at the bottom; the right-hand hole is for the 
* They may also be distinguished by the Colours, black and white.  Affirmative, and the left for the Negative.  
And, because that no man shall know on which side a man puts his Ball, (who is giving his Vote) there is a place roundish made in the Box, to put in the Hand and Arm, almost half way to the Elbow, so as the Hand being in, the Party may let his Ball drop as he pleaseth.  
When all have done Ballotting, the Box is opened, and what is in the Affirmative noted down.  
Then the next Competitor is Ballotted for, as the former, and so of the rest; and he who hath most Votes in the Affirmative, is elected.  
All very easily performed in a short time, without noise, without tumult, without animofities, and the most deserving always is elected.  
FINIS.