The Lord Strategus;

2. The Lord Orator;

3. The Third Commissioner of the Great Seal;

4. The Third Commissioner of the Treasury;

5. The First Censor;

6. The Second Censor;

this list or schedule consists of six magistracies, and to every
magistracy there are to be four competitors; that is, in all
four-and-twenty competitors proposed to the house. They that are to
propose the competitors are called electors, and no elector can propose
above one competitor: wherefore for the proposing of four-and-twenty
competitors you must have four-and-twenty electors; and whereas the
ballot consists of a lot and of a suffrage, the lot is for no other use
than for the designation of electors; and he that draws a gold ball
at the middle urn is an elector. Now, as to have four-and-twenty
competitors proposed, you must have four-and-twenty electors made, so to
have four-and-twenty electors made by lot, you must have four-and-twenty
gold balls in the middle urn; and these (because otherwise it would
be no lot) mixed with a competent number of blanks, or silver balls.
Wherefore to the four-and-twenty gold balls cast six-and-twenty silver
ones, and those (reckoning the blanks with the prizes) make fifty balls
in the middle urn. This done (because no man can come to the middle urn
that has not first drawn a gold ball at one of the side urns) and to be
sure that the prizes or gold balls in this urn be all drawn, there must
come to it fifty persons; therefore there must be in each of the side
urns five-and-twenty gold balls, which in both come to fifty; and to the
end that every senator may have his lot, the gold balls in the side urns
are to be made up with blanks equal to the number of the ballotants at
either urn; for example, the house consisting of 300 senators, there
must be in each of the side urns 125 blanks and twenty-five prizes,
which come in both the side urns to 300 balls. This is the whole mystery
of preparing the urns, which the censors having skill to do accordingly,
the rest of the ballot, whether the parties balloting understand it or
not must of necessary consequence come right; and they can neither be
out, nor fall into any confusion in the exercise of this art.

But the ballot, as I said, is of two parts, lot and suffrage, or
the proposition and result. The lot determines who shall propose the
competitors; and the result of the Senate, which of the competitors
shall be the magistrates. The whole, to begin with