egus in the first, to be censor in the second, to be orator in the
third, and to be commissioner of the seal in the fourth order, or the
like in more or fewer orders, in which cases if he misses of the first
magistracy, he is balloted to the second; if he misses of the second, to
the third; and if he misses of the third, to the fourth.

The ballot not finished before sunset, though the election of the
magistrates already chosen be good, voids the election of such
competitors as being chosen are not yet furnished with magistracies, as
if they had never been named (for this is no juggling-box, but an art
that must see the sun), and the ballot for the remaining magistracies
is to be repeated the next day by new orders of electors, and such
competitors as by them shall be elected. And so in the like manner, if
of all the names proposed to the same magistracy, no one of them attains
to above half the suffrages in the affirmative.

The senatorian ballot of Oceana being thus described, those of the
parish, of the hundred, and of the tribe, being so little different,
that in this they are all contained, and by this may be easily
understood, are yet fully described, and made plain enough before in the
fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth orders.

This, therefore, is the general order, whence those branches of the
ballot, some whereof you have already seen, are derived; which, with
those that follow, were all read and debated in this place at the
institution. When my Lord Epimonus de Garrula, being one of the
councillors, and having no further patience (though the rulers were
composed by the agent of this commonwealth, residing for that purpose at
Venice) than to hear the direction for the parishes, stood up and made
way for himself in this manner:

"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HIGHNESS, MY LORD ARCHON:

"Under correction of Mr. Peregrin, Spy, our very learned agent and
intelligencer, I have seen the world a little, Venice, and (as gentlemen
are permitted to do) the great Council balloting. And truly I must needs
say, that it is for a dumb show the goodliest that I ever beheld with my
eyes. You should have some would take it ill, as if the noble Venetians
thought themselves too good to speak to strangers, but they observed
them not so narrowly. The truth is, they have nothing to say to their
acquaintance; or men that are in council sure would have tongues: for a
council, and not a word spoken in it, is a contradiction. But