"Was its establishment the work of a day? Would this great Council, created for two months only, have been continued by a new vote for one year, five years, ten years, and at last permanently, if the exercise of its power had not been recognized as a benefit rather than an evil? Was not this State, which in establishing this Council created a judge for itself, the best governed and most orderly which then existed in the world? What other nation then had a parliament like that of Venice? Could the sovereign exercise oppression even in his decrees? What was the Doge in the presence of the Grand Council, the lesser Council, and the Senate, other than a person with less power than the Sovereign of Great Britain to-day, who must be in accord with the will of the Parliament and the House of Lords? Moreover, it is manifest to one who seeks to know the Council of Ten from authentic sources, rather than from amusing histories without reliable knowledge, that this power was for the protection of the people against the patricians rather than against the people in favor of the patricians.
"Go to its archives, open its records, examine its parchments, penetrate into its correspondence, initiate yourself in the mysteries of its justice, understand its decrees, inform yourself as to its judgments, and you will see whether it made its power one long abuse, and whether the spirit of tyranny rather than that of justice was its inspiration and motive power. That it held a terrible power in its hands is incontestable; but that it used this power upon suspicion, and in the absence of other proof, is absolutely false. It is puerile to judge the penalties of those days by present standards. Should we not consider the manners and customs of its time? Under the best of our kings, under the most just, the most amiable and honest, were not the abettors of certain crimes furiously quartered? It is absurd to compare past history with the present, except it be to praise and admire the progress that has been made.
"Moreover, the Council of Ten had to sustain, in the course of three centuries, the most searching tests to which a political institution could be subjected. Three times its institution, its existence, and its system were placed under the ban of the Parliament which had created it. Three times was it called in question by a party in the Grand Council, and submitted to examination and discussion. The tribune was free; the speeches made for and against its abolition still exist. In 1582, 1628, and 1762 the eloquence of the orators threatened its destruction. Judges were elected by vote to thoroughly inform themselves regarding it. They did not act under personal instruction to proceed against the individuals invested with full powers and accused of having used them against the welfare of the State. Quite otherwise were they instructed, since, according to the results of their investigation, a considerable Assembly would decide for or against the preservation of this institution in the Republic. Its most secret papers were submitted to them; and three times the Council of Ten triumphed over the party opposed to it, after having been subjected to the most exciting and searching discussions which could possibly engage a great and vigorous political assembly."
CHAPTER VII.
MURANO AND THE GLASS-MAKERS.
The excursion to Murano must be made on a fine day, when the wind is favorable and the sea calm, as it is frequently very rough near that island. We leave Venice at the Fondamenta Nuove, and keep to the north. It is but a half-hour's row to Murano, and the aspect of the lagoon here is quite different from that to the south of Venice. To the east lies the desolate marsh-land formerly called the Dogado, where the Doge had preserves for fishing and shooting. From these marshes came the wild duck which the Doge presented to every noble, on December 4, Saint Barbara's Day.
We soon reach San Michele, the cemetery of Venice, to which the boats with black flags, so often seen, are always going. The sight of it reminds us of Mr. Howells and his "Venetian Life:"—
"As we go by the cemetery of San Michele, Piero the gondolier and Giovanna improve us with a little solemn pleasantry.
"'It is a small place,' says Piero, 'but there is room enough for all Venice in it.'