VOT 
pursued these studies, joining mathematics 
to them, in wliich science he made a con- 
siderable progress. He became Master of 
Artsand Doctor in Philosophy in l.WB ; and 
soon after Director of the College at Dort; 
and, in 1B18, Professor of Eloquence and 
Chronology in the academy there, the same 
year in which appeared his “ History of the 
Pelagian Controversy.” This history pro- 
cured him much odium and disgrace on the 
Continent, but an ample reward in Eng- 
land, where Archbishop Laud obtained 
leave of King Charles I. for Vossius to hold 
a prebendary in the church of Canterbury, 
while he resided at Leyden. This was in 
1629, when he came over to be installed, 
took a Doctor of Laws degree at Oxford, 
and tlien returned. 
In 1633, he was called to Amsterdam to 
fill the chair of a Professor of History ; 
where he died in 1649, at seventy-two 
years of age : after having written and pub- 
lished as many works as, when they came 
to be collected and printed at Amsterdam 
in 1695, &c., made six volumes folio. 
VOTES. The decision of any question 
by an assembly of persons being in its own 
nature impracticable in the case of dissent, 
by one or more of the individuals, it be- 
comes an object of practical necessity to 
provide for that case, in most instances, by 
some expedient. In our English law the 
determination of twelve men upon ajury 
is rendered unanimous by annexing the 
condition, that they shall not delay longer 
than it shall be possible for them to subsist 
without the necessaries of life. Upon al- 
most any other occasion it has been esta- 
blished that the wish of the majority shall 
be taken as the sense of the whole. 
This last rule is, however, capable of 
many modifications, one of the most strik- 
ing is, that which is used in all arrange- 
» meuts of delegation. In order to insure 
the possession of knowledge, fidelity, dili- 
gence, and dispatch, it is usual in society 
to perform the business of the public by 
delegates, in successive order of power 
and responsibility. Thus, a large and 
mixed multitude, possessing very little poli- 
tical knowledge, liable for the most part 
to be misled by prejudices or corruption, 
incapable, on many accounts, of pursuing ob- 
jects with steadiness, and from their number 
absolutely unable to deliberate or decide, 
with the smallest degree of efficacy, may 
nevertlieless be very capable of determining 
the single question who shall be their dele- 
gate in a less numerous assembly of wis.e 
VOW 
and virtuous men ; and this last a-saembly , 
may give power to their chairman and their 
committees to perform many acts wliich 
could scarcely be effected by themselves 
in their entire mass. 
These proceedings, however, are sup- 
posed to have the determination of single 
questions in view at a time ; hut there are 
questions of vote which in their own nature 
possess a degree of complexity. Into these 
our limits will not allow us to enter, but 
there is one relating to personal elections, 
which Borda,in his Memoirs of the French 
Academy, has pointed out, and is intitled 
to our notice. It relates to the choice of 
one out of a number of candidates, which is 
made simply by taking him who has the 
majority of voices, but which may not coin- 
cide with the wish of the electors, and may 
even be that which is the most opposite 
to that wish. 
The example is, suppose these candi- 
dates, A, B, and C, had twcnty-oiie elec- 
tors ; then if A have eight votes, B seven, 
and C six, A will be elected. But the 
truth here manifested is, that eight voters 
out of twenty-one give the preference to 
A beyond B and C, and it is not known in 
what order of preference those voters plaee 
these two last. A like observation may be 
made as to the other sets who have voted 
in preference for B and C. So that if the 
seven voters for B had possessed the means 
of showing, and had declared their prefer- 
ence of C to A, C would have had thirteen 
votes, and prevailed, against A ; and there 
is nothing in this cause of election which 
can show that this would not have been the 
result. 
Mr. B. proposes that this should be reme- 
died by each voter giving in a list of the 
order of merit in the candidates, and he 
shows at length, by mathematical reason- 
ing, the true indication to be deduced from 
such lists. But as this practice might pro- 
bably be too remote from vulgar appre- 
hension to be much approved, it may be 
sufficient to refer the reader to the Me< 
moir, and to remark that, in order to be 
certain that an election, made in the com^ 
mon way, is really the wish of the majority, 
it is necessary that the number of votes 
obtained by the successful candidate should 
be to the whole number of electors, in a 
greater ratio than the number of candidates 
by one to their total number. 
VOWEL, in grammar, a letter which 
affords a complete sound of itself, or a letter 
so simple as only to need a bare opening of 
