which seemed very strange for since that defence is made upon so small an expence it was amazing to see Bridges so naked and that was more surprizing in some places where the Bridges are both high and long yet I never heard of any Mischief that followed on this but those are sober Countries where drinking is not much in use After two days journey we came to Coire which is the chief Town of the Grisons and where we found a general Diet of the three Leagues sitting so that having staid ten days there I came to be informed of a great many particulars concerning those Leagues which are not commonly known The Town is but little and may contain between four and five thousand Souls it lies in a bottom upon a small brook that a little below the Town falls into the Rhine It is environed with Mountains on all hands so that they have a very short Summer for the Snow is not melted till May or June and it began to Snow in September when I was there On a rising grounâ— at the East-End of the Town is the Cathedral the Bishop's Pallace and the Close where the Dean and six Prebendaries live all within the Close are Papists but all the Town are Protestants and they live pretty Neighbourly together Above a qâ—arter of a mile high in the Hill one goes up by a steep ascent to S. Lucius Chappel my Curiosity carryed me thither tho' I gave no Faith to the Legend of King Lucius and of his coming so far from home to be the Apostle of the Grisons His Chappel is a little Vault about ten Foot square where ther is an Altar and where Mass is said upon some great Festivites it is situated under a natural Arch that is in the Rock which was thought proper to be given out to have been the Cell of a Hermit from it some drops of a small Fountain fall down near the Chappel the Bishop assured me it had a miraculovs vertue for weak eyâ—s and that it was Oily but neither Tast nor Feeling could discover to me any Oilyness I believe it may be very good for the Eyes as all Rock-water is but when I offered to shew the good Old Bishop that the legend of Lucius was a Fable in all the parts of it but most remarkably in that which related to the Grisons and that we had no Kings in Brittain at that time but were a Province to the Romans that no ancient Auâ—hors speak of it Bede being the first that mentions it and that the pretended Letter to Pope Eleutherius together with his Answer has evident Characters of Forgery in it all this signified nothing to the Bishop who assured me that they had a Tradition of that in their Church and it was inserted in their Breviary which he firmly believ'd He also told me the other legend of King Lucius's Sister S. Emerita who was burnt there anâ— of whose Veil there was yet a considerable remnant reserved among their Relicks I confess I never saw a Relick so ill disguised for it is a piece of worn linnen Cloth lately washt and the burning did not sâ—em to be a month old and yet when they took it out of the Case to shew it me there were some there that with great Devotion rub'd their beads upon ir The Bishop had some Contests with his Dean and being a Prince of the Empire he had proscribed him the Dean had also behaved himself so insolently that by an order of the Diet to which even the Bishop as was believed consented he was put in Prison as he came out of the Cathedral By the common consent both of the Popish and Protestant Communities a Law was long ago made against Ecclesiastical Immunities this attempt on the Dean was made four years ago as soon as he was let out he went to Rome and made great Complaints of the Bishop and it was thought the Popish Party intended to move in the Diet while we were there for the Repealing of that Law but they did it nor The foundation of the quarrel between the Bishop and Dean was the Exemptions to which the Dean and Chapter pretended and upon which the Bishop made some invasion Upon which I took occasion to shew him the novelty of those Exemptions and that in the Primitive Church it was believed that the Bishop had the Authority over his Presbyters by a Divine Right and if it was by a Divine Right then the Pope could not exempt them from his Obedience but the Bishop would not carry the matter so high and contented himself with two maxims the one was That the Bishop was Christ's Vicar in his Diocess and the other was That what the Pope was in the Catholick-Church the Bishop was the same in his Diocess He was a good natured man and did not make use of the great Authority that he has over the Papists there to set them on to live uneasily wth their Neighbours of another Religion That Bishop was antiently a great Prince and the greatest part of the League that carries still the Name of The House of God belonged to him tho' I was assured that Pregallia one of these Communities was a Free-State above Six hundred years ago and that they have Records yet extant that prove this The other Communities to this League bought their Liberties from several Bishops some considerable time before the Reformation of which the Deeds are yet extant So that it is an impudent thing to say as some have done That they shook off his Yoke at that time The Bishop hath yet reserved a Revenue of about One thousand pound sterling a year and every one of the Prebendaries hath near Two hundred pound a year It is not easie to imagine out of what the Riches of this Countrey is raised for one sees nothing but a tract of vast Mountains that seem barren Rocks and some little Vallies among them not a mile broad and the best part of these is washed away by the Rhine and some Brooks that fall into it but their weâ—lth consists chiefly in their Hills which afford much Pasture and in the hot Months in which all the Pasture of Italy is generally parched the Cattle are driven into these Hills which brings them in a Revenue of above Two hundred thousand Crowns a year The Publick is indeed very poor but particulâ—r persons are so rich that I knew a great many there who were believed to have Estates to the value of One hundred thousand Crowns Mr. Schovestein that is accounted the richest man in the Country is believed to be worth a million I mean of Livres The Government here is purely a Common-wealth for in the Choice of their Magistrates every man that is above sixteen years Old hath his voice which is also the Constitution of some of the small Cantons The three Leagues are the League of the Grisons that of the House of God and that of The Ten Jurisdictions They believe that upon the incursions
chain of so many of them together and their extent both in length and breadth if at first he thinks of the old Fables of laying one Hill upon the top of another he will be afterwards apt to imagine according to the ingenious Conjecture of one that travelled over them oftner than once that these cannot be the primary Productions of the Author of Nature but are the vast ruines of the first World which at the Deluge broke here into so many Inequalities One Hill not far from Geneva called Maudit or Cursed of which one Third is always covered with Snow is two miles of perpendicular height according to the Observation of that incomparable Mathematician and Philosopher Nicolas Fatio Duilier who at Twenty two Years of Age is already one of the greatest men of his Age and seems to be born to carry Learning some sizes beyond what it has yet attain'd But now I will entertain you a little with the State of Bern for that Canton alone is above a third part of all Switzerland I will say nothing of its Beginnings nor History nor will I enlarge upon the Constitutions which are all well known It has a Counsel of Two hundred that goes by that Name tho' it consists almost of Three hundred and another of Twenty five as Geneva The chief Magistrates are two Advoyers who are not annual as the Sindicks of Geneva but are for life and have an Authority not unlike that of the Roman Consuls each being his Year by turns the Advoyer in Office After them there are the four Bannerets who answer to the Tribunes of the People in Rome then come the two Bursars or Treasurers one for the ancient German Territory the other for the French Territory or the Country of Vaud and the two last chosen of the Twenty five are called the Secrets for to them all Secrets relating to the State are discovered and they have an Authority of calling the Two hundred together when they think fit and of accusing those of the Magistracy the Advoyers themselves not excepted as they see cause tho' this falls out seldom There are seventy two Bailiages into which the whole Canton of Bern is divided and in every one of those there is a Bailiff named by the Council of Two hundred who must be a Citizen of Bern and one of the Two hundred to which Council no man can be chosen till he is married These Bailiages are Imployments both of Honour and Profit for the Bailiff is the Governour and Judge in that Jurisdiction since tho' he has some Assessors who are chosen out of the Bailiage yet he may by his Authority carry matters which way he will against all their Opinions and the Bailiffs have all the Confiscations and Fines so that Drinking being so common in the Country and that producing many Quarrels the Bailiff makes his advantage of all those disorders and in the six years of his Government according to the quality of his Bailiage he not only lives by it but will carry perhaps twenty thousand Crowns with him back to Bern on which he lives till he can carry another Bailiage for one is capable of being twice Bailiff but tho' some have been thrice Bailiffs this is very extraordinary The Exactions of the Bailiff are the only Impositions or Charges to which the Inhabitants are subjected and these falling only on the Irregularities and Disorders of the more debauched makes that this Grievance tho' in some particulas Cases it presses hard yet is not so universally felt for a sober and regular man is in no danger Many in this Canton are as in England Lords of Castles and Mannors and have a Jurisdiction annexed to their Estates and name their Magistrate who is called the Castellan In matters of small consequence there lies no Appeal from him to the Bailiff but beyond the value of two Pistols an Appeal lies and no Sentence of Death is executed till it is confirmed at Bern. There lies also an Appeal from the Bailiff to the Council at Bern. There are many Complaints of the injustice of the Bailiffs but their Law is short and clear so that a Sute is soon ended two or three Hearings is the most that even an intricate Sute amounts to either in the first Instance before the Bailiff or in the second Judgment at Bern. The Citizens of Bern consider these Bailiages as their Inheritance and they are courted in this State perhaps with as much Intrigue as was ever used among the Romans in the distribution of their Provinces and so little signifie the best Regulations when there are intrinsick Diseases in a State that though there is all possible Precaution used in the Nomination of these Bailiffs yet that has not preserved this State from falling under so great a mischief by those little Provinces that as it has already in a great measure corrupted their Morals so it may likely turn in Conclusion to the Ruine of this Republick All the Electors give their Voices by Ballot so that they are free from all after-Game in the Nomination of the Person All the Kindred of the Pretenders even to the remotest degrees are excluded from Voting as are also all their Creditors so that none can vote but those who seem to have no interest in the Issue of the Competition and yet there is so much Intrigue and so great Corruption in the distribution of these Imployments That the whole Business in which all Bern is ever in motion is the catching of the best Bailiages on which a Family will have its Eye for many Years before they fall For the Counsellors of Bern give a very small share of their Estates to their Children when they marry them all that they purpose is to make a Bailiage sure to them for this they feast and drink and spare nothing by which they may make sure a sufficient number of Votes but it is the Chamber of the Bannerets that admits the Pretenders to the Competition When the Bailiff is chosen he takes all possible methods to make the best of it he can and lets few Crimes pass that carry either Confiscations or Fines after them his Justice also is generally suspected It is true those of the Bailiage may complain to the Council at Bern as the oppressed Provinces did anciently to the Senate of Rome and there have been severe Judgments against some more exorbitant Bailiffs yet as Complaints are not made except upon great Occasions which are not often given by the Bailiffs so it being the general Interest of the Citizens of Bern to make all possible Advantages of those Imployments the Censure will be but gentle except the Complaint is crying In Bern there is very little Trade only what is necessary for the support of the Towns They maintain Professors in the Universities of Bern and Lausanne the one for the German Territory which is the ancient Canton and the other for the new Conquest which is the French In the former there are about
as it was among the Florentines who though they value themselves as a size of Men much above the Venetians whom they despise as a phlegmatick and dull race of People yet shewed how little they understood with all their vivacity to conduct their state since by their domestick heats they lost their liberty which the Venetians have had the wisdom still to preserve This Faction of the Case Ducale was perhaps willing to let the matter fall for they lost more than they got by it for the ancient Families in revenge set themselves against them and excluded them from all the other advantagious imployments of the State For the others being only united in that single point relating to the Dukedom the ancient Families let them carry it but in all other Competitions they set up always such Competitors against the pretenders that were of the Ducal Families that were much more esteemed than these were so that they shut them out of all the best Offices of the Republick Such a Faction as this was â—f it had been still kept up might in conclusion have proved fatal to their Liberty It is indeed a wonder to see the Dignity of the Duke so much courted for hâ— is only a prisoner of state tied up to such rules so severely râ—strained and shut up as it were in an apartment of the Palace of St. Mark that it is not strange to see some of the greatest Families in particular the Cornara's decline it All the Family if ever so numerous must retire oâ—t of the Senate when a Duke is chosen out of it only one that is next to him of kin sits still but without a Vote And the only real Priviledge that the Duke hath is that he can of himself without communicating with the Savii propose matters either to the Council of Ten to the Senate or to the Great Council whereas all other propositions must be first offered to the Savii and examined by them who have a soâ—t of Tribunitian power to reject what they dâ—slike and though they cannot hinder the Duke to make a proposition yet they can mortifie him when he hath made it They can hâ—â—der it to be voted and after it is voted they can suspend the execution of it till it is examined over again And a Duke that is of an active Spirit must resolve to endure many of these afflictions and it is certain that the Savii do sometimes affect to shew the greatness of their Authority and exercise a sort of Tyranny in the rejecting of Proâ—ositions when they intend to humble those that make them Yet the greatest part of the best Families court this Honour of Dukedom extreamly when Segrado was upon the point of being chosen Duke there was so violent an outcry against it over all Venice because of the disgrace that they thought would come on the Republick if they had a Prince whose Note had miscarried in some unfortunate disorders the Senate complyed so far with this Aversion that the People testified That though the Inquisitors took care to hang or drown many of the chief of the Mutineers yet they let the design for Sagredo fall Upon which he was so much disgusted that he retired to a house he had in the Terra firma and never appeared more at Venice During which time of his retirement he writ two Books the one Memorie Ottomaniche which is Printed and he is accounted the best of all the Modern Authors The other was Memoirâ—s of the Government and History of Venice which hath never been Printed and some say it is too sincere and too particular so that it is thought it will be reserved among their Archives It hath been a sort of maxim now for some time not to chuse a married Man to be Duke for the Coronation of a Dutchess goes high and hath cost above Hundred thousand Ducats Some of the ancient Families have affected the Title of Prince and have called their branches Princes of the Blood and though the Cornara's have done this more than any other yet others upon the account of some Principalities that their Ancestors had in the Islands of the Archipelago have also affected those vain Titles But the Inquisitors have long ago obliged them to lay aside all those high Titles and such of them that boast too much of their Blood find the dislike which that brings on them very sensibly for whensoever they pretend to any great Employments they find themselves always excluded When an Election of Ambassadors was proposed or of any of the chief Offices it was wont to be made in those terms that the Council must chuse one of its principal Members for such an Employment But because this lookt like a term of distinction among the Nobility they changed it Five and twenty Years ago and instead of Principal they use now the term Honourable which comprehends the whole body of the Nobility without any distinction It is at Venice in the Church as well as in the State that the Head of the Body hath a great Title and particular Honours done him whereas in the mean while this is a meer Pageantry and under these big words there is lodged only a light shadow of Authority for their Bishop has the glorious Title of Patriark as well as the Duke is called their Prince and his serenity and hath his name stampt upon their Coin so the Patriark with all his high Title hath really no Authority For not only St. Mark 's Church is intirely exempted from his jurisdiction and is immediately subject to the Duke but his Authority is in all other things so subject to the Senate and so regulated by them that he hath no more power than they are pleased to allow him So that the Senate is as really the supream Governor over all Persons and in all Causes as the Kings of England have pretended to be in their own Dominions since the Rrformation But besides all this the Clergy of Venice have a very extraordinary sort of exemption and are a sort of a Body like a Presbytery independent of the Bishop The Curats are chosen by the Inhabitants of every Parish and this makes that no Noble Venetian is suffered to pretend to any Curacy for they think it below that Dignity to suffer one of their Body to engage in a Competition with one of a lower Order and to run the hazard of being rejected I was told the manner of those Elections was the most scandalous thing possible for the several Candidates appear on the day of election and set out their own merits and defame the other pretenders in the foulest language and in the most scurrilous manner imaginable the secrets of all their lives are publisht in most reproachful terms and nothing is so abject and ridiculous that is not put in practice on those occasions There is a sort of an Association among the Curats for judging of their common concerns and some of the Laity of the several Parishes assist in those
are many Citizens who are as ancient as the Nobility only their Ancestoâ—s not hapning to be of that Council that assumed the Government about Four Hundred Years ago they have not been raised to that Honour so there had been no Infamy in creating some of them to be of the Nobility It had been also brought under consultation long ago upon the reduction of those States in the Terra firma whether it was not advisable according to the maxims of the ancient Romans to communicate that dignity to some of their chief Families as being the surest way to give some contentment to those States it being also a real as well as a cheap security when the chief Families in those Cities were admitted to a Share in all the Honours of the Republick It is true some of the Nobility of those States thought they had Honour enough by their birth and so Zambara of Brescia refused to accept an Honour from those that had robbed his Country of its liberty yet his posterity are now o another mind for they came and bought in this last sale of honour that which was freely offered to their Ancestor and was rejected by him When the Senate found it self extreamly pressed for money during the war it was at first proposed that some Families to the number of Five might be enobled they offering Sixty Thousand Ducats if they were Venetians and Seventy Thousand if they were Strangers There was but one Person that opposed this in the Senate so it being passed there was presented to the great Council and there it was like to have passed without any difficulty but one Person opposed it with so much vigor that though the Duke desired him to give over his opposition since the necessities of the War required a great supply yet he persisted still and though one of the Savii set forth with tears the extremities to which the State was reduced he still insisted and fell upon one conceit that turned the whole Council he said they were not sure if Five Persons could be found that would purchase that honour at such a rate and then it would be a vast disgrace to expose the offer of Nobility first to sale and then to the affront of finding no buyers when it was offered to be sold and by this means he put by the resolution for that time But then another method was taken that was more honourable and was of a more extended consequence Labia was the first that presented a Petition to the great Council setting forth his merits towards the Republick and desiring that he might be thought worthy to offer a Hundred Thousand Ducats towards the service of the State this was understood to be the asking to be made noble at that price Delfino said he thought every Man might be well judged worthy to offer such an assistance to the Publick and that such as brought that supply might expect a suitable acknowledgment from the Senate who might afterwards of their own accord bestow that honour on those that expressed so much zeal for the Publick and this would be too much debased if it were thus bought and sold but it seems the purchasers had no mind to part with their money and to leave the reward to the gratitude of the Council so the Petition was granted in plain terms and the Nobility so acquired was not only to descend to the Children of him that was enobled but to his Brothers and the whole Family to such a degree After Labia a great many more came with the like Petitions and it was not unpleasant to see in what terms Merchants that came to buy this Honour set forth their merits which were that they had taken care to furnish the Republick with such things as were necessary for its preservation There was a sort of a Triumvirat formed of a Jew a Greek and an Italian who were the Brokers and found out the Merchants and at last brought down the price from a Hundred Thousand to Sixty Thousand Ducats and no other qualifications were required if they had money enough For when Correge said to the Duke that he was afraid to ask that honour for want of merit the Duke asked him if he had a Hundred Thousand Ducats and when the other answered the Summ was ready the Duke told him that was a great merit At last Seventy Eight purchased this honour to the great regret of Labia who said that if he had imagined that so many would have followed him in that demand he would have bid so high for it that it should have been out of their power to have done it It is true many of the Purchasers were Ancient and Noble Families but many others were not only Merchants but were of the lowest sort of them who as they had inriched themselves by Trade did then impoverish themselves by the acquisition of an honour that as it obliged them to give over their Trade and put them in a higher way of living so it hath not brought them yet in any advantage to ballance that loss for they are so much despised that they are generally excluded when they compete with the ancient Nobility though this is done with that discretion that the old Families do not declare always against the new for that would throw the new into a faction gainst them which might be a great prejudice to them for the new are much more numerous than the old Another great prejudice that the Republick feels by this great Promotion is that the chief Families of the Citizens of Venice who had been long practised in the affairs of State and out of whom the Envoyes the Secretaries of State and the Chancellour that is the head of the Citizens as well as the Duke is the head of the Nobility are to be chosen having purchased the chief Honour of the State there is not now a sufficient number of capable Citizens left for serving the State in those Employments but this defect will be redrest with the help of a little time But if this increase of the Nobility hath lessened the Dignity of the ancient Families there is a regulation made in this Age that still preserves a considerable distinction of Authority in their hands Crimes against the State when committed by any of the Nobility were always judged by the Inquisitors and the Council of Ten but all other Crimes were judged by the Council of Forty But in the Year 1624. one of the Nobles was accused of Peculat committed in one of their Governments and the Avogadore in the pleading as he set forth his Crime called him a Rogue and a Robber yet though his crimes were manifest there being but Six and twenty Judges present Twelve only condemned him and Fourteen acquitted him this gave great offence for though he was acquitted by his Judges his Crimes were evident so that his Fame could not be restored for the Depositions of the Witnesses and the Avogadores or the Attorney Generals Charge were heard by
the People so it was proposed to make a difference between the Nobility and the other Subjects and since all Trials before the Forty were publick and the Trials before the Ten were in secret it seemed fit to remit the Nobility to be tried by the Ten Some foresaw that this would tend to a Tyranny and raise the Dignity of the ancient Families of whom the Council of Ten is always composed too high Therefore they opposed it upon this ground That since the Council of Forty sent out many Orders to the Governors it would very much lessen their Authority if they were not to be the Judges of those who obliged to receive their Orders But to qualify this Opposition a Proviso was made that reserved to the Council of Forty a power to Judge of the Obedience that was given to their Orders but all other Accusations of the Nobility were remitted to the Council of Ten and the body of the Nobility were so pleased with this Distinction that was put between them and the other Subjects that they did not see that this did really enslave them so much the more and brought them under more danger since those who judge in secret have a freer scope to their passions than those whose proceedings are publick and so are in effect judged by the Publick which is often a very effectual restraint upon the Judges themselves But the Council of Ten being generally in the hands of the great Families Whereas those of all sorts are of the Council of Forty which was the chief Judicatory of the State and is much Ancienter than that of Ten It had been much more wisely done of them to have been still Judged by the Forty And if they had thought it for their Honour to have a difference made in the way of judging the Nobility and the other Subjects it had been more for their security to have brought their Trials to this That whereas the Forty Judge all other offenders with open doors the Nobility should be judged the doors being shut which is a thing they very much desire now but without any hope of ever obtaining it For this power of Judging the Nobility is now considered as Right of the Ten and if any Man would go about to change it the Inquisitors would be perhaps very quick with him as a mover of Sedition and be in that case both Judge and Party Yet the Inquisitors being apprehensive of the distast that this might breed in the body of the Nobility have made a sort of regulation though it doth not amount to much which is that the Nobility shall be Judged before the Council of Ten for atrocious cases such as matter of State the robbing the Publick and other enormous Crimes but that for all other matters they are to be Judged by the Forty yet the Council of Ten draws all cases before them and none dare dispute with them But this leads me to say a little to you of that part of this Constitution which is so much censured by strangers but is really both the greatest glory and the chief security of this Republick which is the unlimited power of Inquisitors that extends not only to the chief of the Nobility but to the Duke himself who is so subject to them that they may not only give him severe reprimands but search his Papers make his Process and in conclusion put him to death without being bound to give an account of their Proceedings except to the Council of Ten. This is the dread not only of all the Subjects but of the whole Nobility and of all that bear Office in the Republick and makes the greatest among them tremble and so obligeth them to an exact conduct But though it is not to be denied that upon some occasions they may have been a little too sudden particularly in the known story of Foscarini yet such unjustifiable severities have occurred so seldom that as the wisdom of this Body in making and preserving such an Institution cannot be enough admired so the dextrous conduct of those who mannage this vast trust so as not to force the Body to take it out of their hands is likewise highly to be wondered at In short the insolence the factions the revenges the necessities and ambition that must needs possess a great many Members of so vast a Body as is the Nobility of Venice must have thrown them often into many fatal Convulsions if it were not for the dread in which they all stand of this Court which hath so many spies abroad chiefly among the Gondaliers who cannot fail to discover all the secret Commerce of Venice besides the secret advices that are thrown in at so many of those Lyons mouths that are in several places of St. Mark 's Palace within which there are boxes that are under the Keys of the Inquisitors so that it is scarce possible for a Man to be long in any design against the State and not to be discovered by them And when they find any in fault they are so inexorable and so quick as well as severe in their Justice that the very fear of this is so effectual a restraint that perhaps the long preservation of Venice and of its Liberty is owing to this single piece of their constitution and the Inquisitors are Persons generally so distinguished for their merit who must be all of different Families and their Authority lasts so short a while that the advantages of this vast Authority that is lodged with them are constant and visible whereas the unhappy instances of their being imposed on anâ— carrying their suspicions too far are so few that wheâ— ever the Nobility grows weary of his yoke and throw it off one may reckon the Glory and Prosperity of Venice at an end It was terribly attackt not long ago by Cornaro when Jerom Cornaro was put to death for his correspondence with Spain he was not near a kin to the great Family of that name yet the Family thought their Honour was so much toucht when one of its remotest branches was condemned of Treason that they offered a Hundred thousand Crowns to have saved him and by consequence to have preserved the Family from that Infamy but though this was not accepted for he suffered as he well deserved yet it was so visible that none of the Family were concerned in his Crimes that it did not at all turn to their prejudice But upon the first occasion that offered it self after that to quarrel with the proceeding of the Inquisitors they laid hold on it and aggravated the matter extreamly and moved for the limiting of their Authority but the Great Council was wiser than to touch so sacred a part of the Government so they retained their power very entire but they manage it with all possible caution A Forreigner that hath been many years in their Service told me that the Stories with which strangers were frighted at the Arbitrary power that was rested in those Inquisitors were slight things