VENICE. 
and gardens, the inconvenience of walking in narrow lanes, 
and the ascending and descending steps at every bridge which 
crosses a canal. On the other hand, Venice is not an ex¬ 
pensive city: the- abundance and cheapness of its markets 
exhibit a striking proof of the ease of supplying a city by 
water. Its population does not at present much exceed 
120,000; in former times it was much more. 
History. —A small band of fugitives, escaping from the 
devastations of the Goths, first peopled the lagunes of the 
Adriatic gulf, in the year 420, and were governed by magis¬ 
trates sent from Padua. In the lagunes, which are navigable 
at high water, but are left partially dry in the ebb, the fugi¬ 
tives found numerous spots among the rocks and little islands, 
sufficiently extensive to admit of cultivation. Their natural 
produce and aliment was, however, fish; and their only 
marketable commodities, the salt which they collected in 
their lagunes, and the fish which they cured with it. Their 
occupations consisted in building and navigating small boats 
for their neighbours. Such was their first acquaintance with 
that element which was afterwards to bear the proud fleets 
of their daring navigators, victorious warriors, and enter¬ 
prising merchants. The greater number of the islands were 
marshes. The most elevated of them, called Rialto, was 
situated nearly in the middle. In progress of time, several 
of them were united by bridges, and formed the scite of the 
city of Venice. Meanwhile, Padua was still the metropolis; 
but having been devastated by the incursions of barbarians 
between the years 450 and 480, her little colonies were 
emancipated from her guardianship, and left to maintain, 
as they could, their independence. From that time, each 
island elected a tribune; and it appears, that the assembly 
of these magistrates constituted a national council. But as 
the necessity of carrying on offensive and defensive wars 
with their neighbours increased, the executive power, not 
very precisely separated indeed from the legislative and 
judicial, was vested in a single tribune. (503.) Though, 
however, this functionary was elective, and bound in most 
things by the deliberations and decrees of the other tribunes, 
his authority was too extensive to be viewed without jea¬ 
lousy and apprehension; and was soon distributed among 
ten, and afterwards among twelve, though occasionally this 
number was reduced to seven. They were chosen annually, 
and were bound to govern the republic with the concurrence 
of a popular assembly, and the assistance of a council of 
forty persons, both chosen by the people, and who also per¬ 
formed the functions of judges. After many and various 
dissentions, the Venetians, in the year 690, elected a chief 
magistrate, called a Doge, who was invested for life with 
sovereign power. A council still, however, remained in 
power, and used to curtail any abuse on the part of the head 
of government. Three Doges were successively elected, but 
in the year 737, the post was abolished, and an annual leader 
elected under the title of Maestro di Milizia. This dignity 
lasted only until 742, when the office of Doge was restored. 
Sovereign power was again entrusted to one man, and’the 
council of forty still continued, without mixing much in the 
executive government, to rule over him. The rights of the 
people were still further protected by the Avvogadori, who 
had a power to suspend all decrees, whether emanating from 
the Doge, the council of forty, or the people: and then he 
could choose which of those estates should decide on the 
validity of his reasons for the suspension. Thus constituted, 
Venice flourished alike in arms and in commerce. The 
Doges were frequently assassinated by the mob, or con¬ 
demned to death by the Forty; and this, as well as the cir¬ 
cumstances before mentioned, serve to show how jealous the 
Venetians were of the despotic sway of an individual. They 
fell, unhappily, under the far more dangerous despotism of 
several. The middling classes feared the excesses of the 
lowest orders, and placed themselves under the protection of 
the grandees, and a system of encroachment on the part of 
these commenced, which ended in placing Venice under the 
dominion of a small number of aristocrats. The council of 
forty had always been allowed to appoint a Doge during an 
Von. XXIV. No. 1641. 
349 
interregnum, and the people either confirmed or annulled 
this nomination at their leisure. In the year 1172, after 43 
successive doges had been assassinated, and much clamour 
thereby created, the council proceeded to make a law, that 
the people might annul the election the forty had made, 
but could not themselves elect another. The same body 
crippled very much the power of the doge, by depriving 
him of the right to choose his own councillors. Sixty fresh 
members were added to the forty, and denominated the 
senate, and these chose from themselves 6 councillors of 
state, called the signoria. 
Towards the middle of the 13th century (about 1247), 
the government became a settled aristocracy, the families of 
wealth and rank assuming and conferring to their own body 
the management of public affairs. This era, that of the 
12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, was the period of the greatest 
relative power of the Venetians. Though their chief hostili¬ 
ties were with the Turks, they took also a part in European 
politics, particularly in the contests between Austria, France, 
and the court of Rome, for a political ascendancy in the 
north of Italy. It was in the beginning of the 16th century 
(in 1508), that the territorial possessions of the republic were 
threatened by the formidable coalition, so well known under 
the name of “ the league of Cambray.” The storm was 
weathered with difficulty; and, for a long time back, the 
policy of Venice has been decidedly pacific, the care of its 
government being to preserve its remaining trade, and to 
prevent any addition to its public debt. It has kept up no 
naval force, except for resistance to Barbary corsairs; and 
hardly any military but what were required for the purpose 
of police. In the political storm which followed the French 
revolution, and which brought Buonaparte, with his army, 
into the Venetian territory, the republic observed a cautious 
neutrality, and allowed its continental provinces to be over¬ 
run without resistance, at one time by the French, at another 
by the Austrians. But all this caution could not secure the 
independence of the state; it was overturned in 1797, when 
it suited France to throw the city and territory of Venice 
into the scale, in the treaty of Campo Formio. They re¬ 
mained subject to Austria till 1895, when, after the disaster 
of Austerlitz, they were annexed to the French kingdom of 
Italy; but in 1814 they returned definitively under the 
power of Austria.—For the military adventures of the Ve¬ 
netian doges, see Turkey, Rome, Italy, &c; 150 miles 
east of Milan, and 246 north of Rome. Lat. 5. 25. 32. N. 
long, of St. Marco, 12. 20.59. E. 
VENICE, a township of the United States, in Huron 
county, Ohio, on the south side of Sandusky bay; 4 miles 
west of the new town of Sandusky. 
VE'NISON, s. [ycnaison, French.] Game; beast of 
chace; the flesh of deer. Chapman writes it as it is spoken, 
venzon. 
Shall we kill us venison ?■ 
And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools 
Shou’d have their round haunches gor’d. Shakspeare . 
VENLOO, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of 
Limburg, on the east side of the Maese. It is a place of 
some antiquity, having been one of the Hanse towns; 40 
miles north-north-east of Maestricht. Population 5000. 
VENLOON, or Loon, op Zand, a small town of the 
Netherlands, in North Brabant, with 3500 inhabitants; 12 
miles west-by-north of Breda. 
VENNINGEN, a small town of the Bavarian circle of the 
Rhine, near Spire. 
VENNINGTON, a hamlet of England, in the parish of 
Westbury, Salop, near Shrewsbury. 
VE'NOM, s. [yenin, French.] Poison. 
Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them 
The fatal balls of murthering basilisks: 
The venom of such looks we fairly hope 
Have lost their quality. Shakspeare. 
To VE'NOM, v. a. To infect with venom; to poison; 
to envenom. 
3 S 
This 
